Issue 32 (October - December 2000)

Advantage or Disadvantage? In this issue, we address the effect of rapid technological development on our society. One of the most recent and unexpected examples is the phenomenal spread of the Internet. We are becoming even more of a global village than we were in the 1960s, when Marshall McLuhan…

Groups formed by disorganized and sinful (disobedient) individuals are merely crowds with no esthetic values, people far from the thought of doing good. On the other hand, ideal or complete people carry the qualities of angels, and are monuments of human foresight and comprehension. We see these q…

Can science and religion coexist? Can an inquisitive mind adopt any religion? Are faith and scientific inquiry incompatible? Is religion a set of dogmas and hence closed to scientific investigation? Is scientific investigation as objective as claimed? Is reality limited to what science discovers…

Plato (d. c.348 BC) described a cave in which people live like prisoners, stuck with the physical objects surrounding them: what they saw, heard, and experienced”what we call the visible world. Since his time, discoveries and inventions have led to many new amenities. But there is a hard question t…

Plato (d. c.348 BC) described a cave in which people live like prisoners, stuck with the physical objects surrounding them: what they saw, heard, and experienced”what we call the visible world. Since his time, discoveries and inventions have led to many new amenities. But there is a hard question t…

Arjun Appadurai Abstract: Appadurai's work offers a very critical and deep analysis of modernity and globalization. He believes that no single theory can describe modernity's complexity, for he believes that a theory cannot be universalistic, and because societies are much messier than our theorie…

One factor that has influenced the course of history is how Muslims and Christians perceive each other's religions. Most Muslims and Christians hold distorted beliefs of the other's beliefs, as literature in the field amply demonstrates. This article on basic doctrinal differences between the two r…

The Internet is often termed the information highway because it connects countless computers and users all over the world. We use it for so many things: to research various subjects, to communicate with others, to shop online, to entertain ourselves, and so on. The ability to communicate electronic…

Human beings resemble tender children. Our strength originates in our weakness, and our power in our impotence. All creation has been subjugated to us because of our lack of strength and power. If, therefore, we perceive our weakness and become humble servants to God through verbal and active praye…

Ibn Battuta left Tangier in the Maghrib (contemporary Morocco) in 1325, about 25 years after Marco Polo returned from his journey. Ibn Battuta has been called the Marco Polo of the Orient, a title that places his importance below that of the Venetian while nonetheless placing the two in the same ca…

When two students walked into Colombine High School in Littleton, CO, and killed 12 fellow students, a century-old debate was revived: Is there a connection between violence in motion pictures and real life? Or more generally, is the motion picture industry lowering society’s moral standards? Desen…

Q: Why should I believe in the Resurrection and the Afterlife? A: After belief in God, this is the main way to secure a peaceful social order. If I don't believe in personal accountability, why should I be honest and upright? The Qur'an declares: In whatever affair you may be, and whichever part…