Scientific Muslim

Khalid Ibn Al-Walid

Rules of Doubt in Prayers

Terminologies
Certainty (yaqin): to know something without any doubt (100% certainty something is true). It is obligatory for a person to act according to their own certainty in fulfilling religious obligations.

Contentment (itminan): to be very confident about the reality of something but not to the extent of certitude (e.g., 95% sure). Contentment is acted upon as though acting on certainty; hence, it is obligatory to act according to one’s own contentment in fulfilling religious obligations.

Assumption of high likelihood (dhan): the preponderance of something being true (e.g., 70% certainty) over its opposite (30%). It is like certainty from the perspective of religious obligation in that it must be acted upon in some cases.

Doubt (shak): the uncertainty about something with two equally possible opposite states (50/50) with neither of them being more appropriate than the other.

1.Doubts that must be dismissed
Doubts about the prayer, a specific part of the prayer, or its required conditions if the doubt arises after the person has started the next part, after the time of fulfilling the condition, or after the prayer is completed: Examples include if the person doubts whether they recited Surat al-Fatihah during recitation of the second surah, doubts about their ruku when they are already descending towards sujud, doubts about sujud while in tashahhud, or doubts whether they performed asr prayer when the sun has already set. The doubts in all these cases must be dismissed. However, if the doubt occurs before entering the next part of the prayer, the person must perform the doubted act. For example, if a doubt arises about recitation of Surat al-Fatihah or the second surah before going to ruku, or doubts about performance of ruku before going to sujud, or doubts about performing sujud or tashahhud before starting the subsequent part, then they must complete the doubted part.

Doubt about correctly performing an act of prayer after completing it and before beginning the next part: For example, if a person doubts whether they recited a verse (ayah) of the surah correctly after having already recited it (i.e., they are reciting the next verse), they must dismiss such doubt.

An excessive doubter or one who suffers from wiswas (someone who obsesses over the proper fulfillment of acts such that it constantly hinders the performance of the salat) must dismiss their doubts. An excessive doubter is one who doubts at least once every three prayers. An excessive doubter should dismiss any doubts that arise, whether it is about the number of units (rakat), specific acts of salat, or its conditions. Their prayer is invalid if they pay heed to their doubt.[i]
An excessive doubter is not required to use a counting method to keep track of their prayer or its acts.

2. Doubts that invalidate the prayer

The prayer becomes invalid if doubt leads to the person not knowing which unit (raka) they are performing. If a person doubts the number of units (rakat) during fajr or maghrib, or in the first two units of a four-unit prayer (dhuhr, asr, or isha) then their prayer becomes invalid.

Dhan or assumption of high likelihood about the number of units
Any time a person has dhan or assumption of high likelihood about a unit (raka), they must follow their dhan and continue the prayer. For example, if a person is not sure what unit they are performing, but have dhan that it is the second, then the unit must be considered to be the second, so the person should continue the prayer, which would be considered valid.

Valid doubts about the number of units

Doubts about the number of units (rakat) are valid (i.e., must be redressed) if they occur after commencing the second sajdah in the second unit of a four-unit prayer.

In such cases, the person has two options:

Discontinue the prayer and redo it if there is sufficient time remaining for its completion during the prescribed period. If discontinuing and redoing the prayer cannot be achieved within the prescribed time (e.g., redoing asr prayers when it is almost sunset), then it is not permissible to do so and the person must resort to other option not covered here.

Black holes: A manifestation of Allah’s name of Al-Hafiz

HARUN YAHYA, Arab News



SURAH At-Tariq refers to a ‘piercing star’: “(I swear) by Heaven and the Tariq! And what will convey to you what the Tariq is? The Star Piercing (the darkness)!” (Qur’an, 86:1-3)

The term used in the verse is ‘althaqibu,’ meaning piercing, opening a hole, penetrating and passing through, from the root ‘thaqaba,’ meaning ‘hole.’ The word used in scientific publications when black holes are being described is ‘puncture.’ There is a considerable wisdom in the use of this word to describe the features of black holes in the Qur’an. The fact that this property of stars is mentioned in the Qur’an is important evidence that the Qur’an is indeed the very word of Allah.

The black holes
The 20th century saw a great many new discoveries regarding celestial phenomena in the universe. One of these entities, which has only recently been encountered, is the black hole. These are formed when a star which has consumed all its fuel collapses in on itself, eventually turning into a black hole with infinite density and zero volume and an immensely powerful magnetic field. We are unable to see black holes even with the most powerful telescope, because their gravitational pull is so strong that light is unable to escape from them. However, such a collapsed star can be perceived by means of the effect it has on the surrounding area. In Surah Al-Waqi’a, Allah draws attention to this matter in this way, by swearing upon the position of stars: “Nay I swear by the places of the stars — and that is indeed a mighty oath if you only knew.” (Qur’an, 56:75-76)

Light cannot escape from a black hole because it is such a high concentration of mass in a small space. The enormous gravitational field captures the photons and even the fastest particles. For example, the final stage of a typical star, three times the mass of the Sun, ends after its burning out and its implosion as a black hole of only 20 km (12.5 miles) in diameter! Black holes are “black,” i.e. veiled from direct observation. As well as depictions of the Day of Judgment, the verse below may also be pointing to this scientific discovery about black holes: “When the stars are extinguished.” (Qur’an, 77:8) This fact may be referred to in the verse about stars, and this is another important item of information demonstrating that the Qur’an is the word of Allah.

Almighty Allah provided information about “black holes” in the Qur’an as well as other celestial bodies at a time when mankind knew nothing about celestial bodies.

Information from black holes
Stephen Hawking, the world-famous British physicist, has said that a black hole begins producing nuclear energy when it forms, and that the radiation that forms can provide information about what is inside the black hole.

Stephen Hawking’s obtaining such information is most interesting because this theory is a clear manifestation of Almighty Allah’s title of Al-Hafiz (The Preserver), “He Who preserves all things in detail,” and this has been scientifically proved by the renowned physicist.

In the sight of Allah, everything has taken place and finished in a moment. Since the beginning of time, everything has taken place in this single moment. In the sight of Allah, all information pertaining to this moment is kept in a “Book.” This “Main Book,” or as the Qur’an calls it, “The Mother of the Book,” holds every bit of information about everything: “Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or earth which is not in a Clear Book.” (Qur’an, 27:75)
The Book will be set in place and you will see the evildoers fearful of what is in it. They will say, “Alas for us! What is this Book which does not pass over any action, small or great, without recording it?”
“They will find there everything they did and your Lord will not wrong anyone at all.” (Qur’an, 18:49) Allah has created everything, living or non-living, which has existed since the beginning of the universe and all events which have happened. Consequently, Allah is cognizant of them all. To put it in another way, “They all exist in the memory of Allah.” In this sense, the Mother of the Book is a manifestation of Allah’s attribute, the Al-Hafiz.

One of the miraculous features of the Qur’an proving that it is the word of Allah is these verses referring to black holes. Thanks to the way that the verses of the Qur’an may bear several meanings, it is highly probable that many more miracles of the Qur’an will emerge in the years to come. (Allah alone knows the truth of all things.)

As the word of Almighty and Omniscient Allah, the Qur’an contains much information that people do not understand, or which they as yet lack the knowledge to understand. This information comes to light by means of technological and scientific advances taking place at a time and level of our Lord’s choosing, thus confirming the miraculous nature of the Qur’an.

Destined to eternity
At this point, we come upon a striking fact; because the memory of Allah is infinite, nothing existent in Him becomes lost. In other words, no living being created by Allah vanishes, no flower fades, no drink finishes, no period comes to an end, and no food is consumed. Every moment Allah creates and every exact detail of everything are created in eternity and it is “destined to eternity.”

This explanation may be put in the following way: Eternity has begun for a being or an event by the time it is created. For instance, when a flower is created, it is, in reality, destined not to disappear. That this being ceases to become a part of one’s sensations and is erased from one’s memory does not actually mean that it has vanished or died. Its state in the Sight of Allah is what actually matters. Furthermore, all states of this being, be it its creation, all moments throughout its life or death, exist in the Memory of Allah.
Upon all that is created, Allah bestows eternity. In other words, existing things have attained eternity by the time they are created. To have a thorough grasp of this notion, however, one needs to reflect on all beings and events individually.

But, before proceeding with this subject, it would be useful to stress the following fact; what has been stated so far, together with the following, is no doubt the most important information one can ever acquire in one’s lifetime.

Most probably, many people are hearing and reflecting on these facts about timelessness for the first time in their lives. However, here is something important to keep in mind: Allah, in the Qur’an, draws our attention to the fact that “only those who sincerely turn to Allah” take heed. In other words, only those who truly seek the guidance of our Lord and endeavor to appreciate His infinite might and His greatness will heed these explanations and have a grasp of these facts.

Jinn Attack or Sleep Paralysis- Inability to move body during sleep

Question
Our daughter is having strange experiences during sleep. She complains of feeling something pressing down on her chest which paralyzes her entire body. She cannot even speak. This stops and starts throughout the night. It happens so frequently that she has become depressed and angry. We feel that this is an attack from the Jinn and we want to know what she can do about it.

Answer:
The Scientific Research Committee


These symptoms should not be construed as an attack from the Jinn. This is a very common problem. It is a condition known as sleep paralysis (SP).

Sleep paralysis is defined as a condition in which someone, usually lying in a supine position, about to drop off to sleep, or just upon waking from sleep, realizes that he is unable to move, speak, or cry out. Many complain that they try to recite Ayah al-Kursî but are unable to do so. People in this condition are often beset by feelings of fear or dread and frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes, they feel suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering sense of anxiety.

Many people experience this sensation while falling asleep or as they are waking up and it can cause them discomfort. Some people describe it to be as if they feel as if someone is sitting on their chest.

Common secondary symptoms of this condition are as follows:

A feeling of being choked or suffocated
A feeling of being pinned down or sat upon (particularly in the chest area)
Auditory hallucinations, typically the sounds of footsteps and voices nearby or knocking or banging on the walls
Visual hallucinations, typically beings or dark shadows surrounding or standing near the bed
A frightening feeling of descending or encompassing evil or dread
Shaking of the body or a rumbling sensation (ringing) in the ears
A feeling of intense, suffocating evil
A feeling of being in a dream-like state while at the same time sensing being awake
The source of this phenomenon is a natural bodily function. When you sleep, your brain shuts off the signals coming from your muscles so you do not get up and act out your dreams. This is to prevent you from injuring yourself in your sleep. For some reason, people with sleep paralysis come into consciousness before the brain returns voluntary control back to the muscles, creating a sense of feeling paralyzed. This sensation is quite uncomfortable and understandably frightening, which can lead the not wholly conscious person to experience some of the secondary symptoms of this disorder that can often be very frightening and realistic.

None of what you describe is strange, peculiar, or in the least bit exceptional. It is a benign condition. Several recent surveys suggest that between 25-30% of people have experienced at least a mild form of sleep paralysis at least once and about 20-30% of these people have experienced it on several occasions.

However, if it is a frequent problem for you that is impairing your sleep or causing you discomfort, then you should seek medical attention for it. There are actually many treatments and prescriptions for this condition.

Doctors suggest that getting on a regular sleep schedule and avoiding sleep deprivation are helpful in alleviating this condition.

And Allah knows best.

Source: Islam Today

الإسلام اليوم | الصفحة الرئيسة بوابة معرفية شاملة تسعى إلى تقديم الإسلام بنصاعته ونقائه على منهاج النبوة والمحجة البيضاء، نقيًا من الشوائب، محررًا من التقليد والعصبية

#2020

Pharaoh drowned when he tried to pursue Moses (pbuh) and led the Israelites across a stretch of water that they crossed. The Qur’an gives an additional piece of information in Surah Yunus chapter 10 verse 92:

فَالْيَوْمَ نُنَجِّيكَ بِبَدَنِكَ لِتَكُونَ لِمَنْ خَلْفَكَ‏ آيَةً وَ إِنَّ كَثيراً مِنَ النَّاسِ عَنْ آياتِنا لَغافِلُونَ (یونس:92)

However today We will preserve you in your body so you may be a sign to anyone who comes after you. Yet many people are quite heedless of Our signs.(10: 92 )

Dr. Maurice Bucaille,the member of the French Society of Egyptology, after a thorough research proved that although Rameses II was known to have persecuted the Israelites as per the Bible, he actually died while Moses (pbuh) was taking refuge in Median. Rameses II’s son Merneptah who succeeded him as Pharaoh drowned during the exodus. In 1898, the mummified body of Merneptah was found in the valley of Kings in Egypt. In 1975, Dr. Maurice Bucaille with other doctors received permission to examine the Mummy of Merneptah, the findings of which proved that Merneptah probably died from drowning or a violent shock which immediately preceeded the moment of drowning. Thus the Qur’anic verse that we shall save his body as a sign, has been fulfilled by the Pharaohs’ body being kept at the Royal Mummies room in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

This verse of the Qur’an compelled Dr. Maurice Bucaille, who was a Christian then, to study the Qur’an. He later wrote a book ‘The Bible, the Qur’an and Science’, and confessed that the author of the Qur’an can be no one else besides God Himself. Thus he embraced Islam.

Quoted from the text book, the Quran and the Bible, lesson 10

We are all familiar with the Biblical account of creation. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. He assigned Adam, the first man, to rule over all of his earthly creations. While most of this account is accepted within Islam, the Quran goes one step further and details the creation of the universe itself.

Quran, 41:11 reads:

"Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth."

The description of pre-creation heaven as "smoke" is significant as modern cosmologists agree that the universe once existed as a mere opaque cloud. Scientists continue to observe new stars forming out of similar smoky clouds today.

It is noteworthy that Dr. Alfred Kroner was baffled upon learning of the above Quran verse. Kroner is the Chairman of the Department of Geology at the Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany. This means his knowledge of cosmology is virtually unparalleled.

Speaking of Muhammad and the true source of the Quran, Dr. Kroner stated: "It is almost impossible that he could have known about things like the common origin of the universe, because scientists have only found out within the last few years, with very complicated and advanced technological methods, that this is the case."

The Quran's passages on the stages of prenatal development are masterfully intricate. Furthermore, when read in Arabic, they feature complex wordplay becoming of a divine humorist.

Discussing the evolution of the embryo, Quran, 23:12-14 states:

"We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah."

The first thing we must look at to understand the above passage is the use of the word "alaqah".

In Arabic, "alaqah" is a homograph with three different meanings. It can refer to a leech, a blood clot, or something that has been suspended. All three are relevant when talking about embryonic development.

In utero, a fetus obtains nutrients and oxygen from the blood of the mother. In this way, it is not unlike a leech, which survives by sucking blood from other creatures. In the early stages of its development, an embryo's blood does not circulate. This means large amounts of blood remain stationary, rendering the fetus similar to a blood clot. The translation of "alaqah" as something which has been suspended is particularly interesting. When in the womb, an embryo is "suspended" from the uterine wall by the placenta and umbilical cord.

Much of what we now know about human embryonic development is documented in Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore's scientific reference book The Developing Human. Moore is an authority in anatomy and embryology and in 1981 he visited Saudi Arabia to lecture on the topic.

When discussing the Quran's teachings on prenatal development, Moore declared: "It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all 0of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later."

Swallowing your saliva whiles fasting.

Salaam Alaikum.

What Scientific fact has the Quran or the Prophet made that has marveled you?

Would you want to know some more facts from the Quran and Sunnah? Comment yes below.

All of creation sing praises to Allah including the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

Aameen

Disposable sterile hijabs introduced in hospital Junior doctor Farah Roslan got the idea after having to leave an operating theatre due to her hijab.

List of some of the scientists who converted to Islam and their comments in a nutshell.

1)Keith L. Moore
Professor Emeritus, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Toronto.

He was amazed by the accuracy of the statements made in the Quran in the 7th century. Statements about embryology. Before anyone knew anything about it. These statements in the Quran could not be based on scientific knowledge of the time so it must have come from God.

2) E. Marshall Johnson
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, and Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

He also talked about embryology in the Quran. He said that Prophet Muhammad must have got this info from some source and that he has no issues that it came from God.

3)T.V.N. Persaud
Professor of Anatomy, and Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

He said for a man to make such profound statements about science in the seventh century is amazing. He said it could not be mere chance.

4)Joe Leigh Simpson
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

He said he sees no conflict between genetics and Islam. He said Islam could guide science. He said the knowledge in the Quran is from God.

5)Gerald C. Goeringer
Professor and Co-ordinator of Medical Embryology in the Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

He said the Koran described human development and commingling of the gametes through organogenesis. He said nothing in history has seen such a feat besides current day science.

6) Alfred Kroner
Professor of the Department of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Germany.

He talked about the origin of the universe and how it would be impossible for a man like Prophet Muhammad to know about this from his own mind. He said science today

Physics in the medieval Islamic world

The natural sciences saw various advancements during the Golden Age of Islam (from roughly the mid 8th to the mid 13th centuries), adding a number of innovations to the Transmission of the Classics (such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid, Neoplatonism). During this period, Islamic theology was encouraging of thinkers to find knowledge. Thinkers from this period included Al-Farabi, Abu Bishr Matta, Ibn Sina, al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn Bajjah. These works and the important commentaries on them were the wellspring of science during the medieval period. They were translatedinto Arabic, the lingua franca of this period.

Islamic scholarship in the sciences had inherited Aristotelian physics from the Greeks and during the Islamic Golden Age developed it further. However the Islamic world had a greater respect for knowledge gained from empirical observation, and believed that the universe is governed by a single set of laws. Their use of empirical observation led to the formation of crude forms of the scientific method. The study of physics in the Islamic world started in Iraq and Egypt. Fields of physics studied in this period include optics, mechanics (including statics, dynamics, kinematics and motion), and astronomy.

Credit: Wikipedia