CULTURE OF ISLAM

067 Who, is in Charge?

Imtiaz Muhsin 24-Feb-12

The main objective of these talks (and therefore the scripts of these talks), is to stimulate thinking. Sensible, rational and logical thinking. So, my message, think, think & think! Be sensible, be rational and be logical.

067 Who, is in Charge?

Please Note
1. I have had the great privilege, (since Aug 2010), of presenting talks on the weekly Radio Program Culture of Islam [Every Friday 8 to 8.30 pm, Radio Sri Lanka - FM 97.4] 2. Since these are Radio Talks, I refer to, or address the audience as listeners 3. I am well aware that the audience to these talks would consist of people belonging to a variety of faiths. So as to make people of all faiths feel included, I very often use words and names that are common to all religions. 4. For these reasons, I use the name GOD, as well as Abraham, Moses, Jesus etc as well as the names Allah, Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam), Moosa (Alaihis Salaam), Easa (Alaihis Salaam) etc 5. Muslims by habit usually say Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam, when the name of Prophet Muhammad is mentioned, and Alaihis Salaam' when the name of a Prophet is mentioned. However, in these series of talks I have reduced the use of these prayers & sayings to the bare minimum. 6. Muslims, also by habit, use a number of Arabic prayers or sayings, such as Alhamdulillah, Insha Allah and so on. Again, I have reduced the use of these prayers or sayings to the bare minimum. 7. Sometimes I have to write Arabic words in the English script. I have devised my own way of writing Arabic in English, as follows;

th TH

s Ss SW

DHL DHZ

H h

Gh GH

Information on these talks along with all download links can be found on my on my Blog (http://imtiazm.wordpress.com/) The dates or the schedules of these talks can be viewed on the Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/ImtiazMuhsin786) The Scripts of these talks can be downloaded from www.ScribD.com (www.ScribD.com Author Imtiaz Muhsin) The audio files of these talks can be downloaded from YouTube (YouTube Channel Imtiaz Muhsin) The YouTube Link to this talk is at

All Praise and Thanks is due to Allah and Allah alone Alhamdulillah! P.S The picture on the cover shows the serene setting surrounding a Mosque in a rural village in the Ampara District, in Sri Lanka

067 Who, is in Charge?

067 Who, is in Charge?

Dear Friends, I greet you all with Assalamu Alaikum! On the 10th of November 2010, we (in Colombo) had very heavy rain and according to the Metrological Department, Colombo recorded 440.2 mm rain in 24 hours on this day. The newspapers reported this figure as the second highest rainfall ever recorded for Colombo Now dont you think it quite natural, that when we hear the words second highest we obviously want to know the highest My curiosity was piqued, so, I called the Metrological Department and inquired. They gladly provided me with whatever information I required. According to records maintained by the Metrological Department, the highest rainfall recorded for 24 hours in Colombo is 493.7 mm and that was on June 4th 1992. Now, I began to study this figure. There is a bit of interesting mathematics involved, but then, it is simple maths. Even a Grade 8 student with a basic knowledge of maths could work it out by using a calculator. Let us work it out. [There are some assumptions that I have to make. I assume that the height of rainfall all over the city of Colombo was equal. However, those who remember that eventful night, would recall that rain fell very heavily almost all over Sri Lanka, and the city of Colombo experienced the worst flooding. Remember Navy Boats were plying on the flooded waters of Colombo, rescuing people from the roofs of their submerged houses?!] The area of the City of Colombo is 3,694.2 Sq Kms, which is 3.6942 x 103 Sq Kms That would be 3.6942 x 109 Sq Meters. The height of rainfall recorded was 493.7 mm That would be 4.937 x 10(-1) Meters Multiplying area of Colombo by the height of water would give us the volume of rain water that poured on Colombo during those 24 hours. So we multiply 3.6942 x 109, (which is the area of Colombo in Sq Meters) by 4.937 x 10(-1) (which is the height of rainfall in Meters) The answer would be in Cubic Meters and we get the stupendous figure of 1.824 X 109 M3. A Cubic Meter of Water is 1,000 Kgms or 1 Ton Thus, we see that 1.824 Billion Tons of water rained on Colombo or, 1,824 Million Tons of water rained on Colombo!!!

067 Who, is in Charge?

A cubic meter or a cubic ton is equal to 1,000 liters. (Quite a big volume isnt it?) So if we were to get the figures in Liters it would work out to; 1.824 X 109 X 1,000, this works out to; 1.824 Trillion Liters of rainwater, or 1,824 Million Million Liters of rainwater. Amazing, isnt it? I like playing around with figures, so let us go another step. This is really another way of trying to understand how enormous these numbers actually are. The population of Colombo is 647,100. That means that Colombo has 647,100 citizens. (This is the total number of Men Women and Children living as residents in Colombo) If this 1,824 Trillion Liters of water was to be divided amongst the population of Colombo, then each citizen of Colombo would get 2.8 billion liters!!! I repeat, 2.8 billion liters per person in just 24 hours of rainfall. Now I ask this question, actually you might think it is a stupid question; Where did all this rain or all this water come from? Everyone, even a small child would answer, from the sky But then I again ask this question, how was such a massive volume of water, or such a heavy mass of water being held up in the sky without any pillars, or tanks, or any support that we can see? How? Newton is supposed to have asked this stupid question, Why did the Apple fall down? and we know the gateways of knowledge that that query opened. Now I ask an equally stupid question, How is this massive mass of water being held up in the sky? The more we think about it, the more amazed we become. Physicists would come up with all types of answers, but they cannot explain away the amazement we feel when thinking about this phenomena. I think, we are told that the rays of the sun heat the water on the surface of the Earth and this vaporizes and spreads out in the atmosphere. Then I ask this question, then what happens at night? How is it that it rains during day time? Sometimes even when the Sun is shining brightly. How is it that this heavy body of water falls down ever so gently, sometime we call it a light drizzle. The raindrops do not even injure delicate flowers. How? We would never go under a bucket of water that was in danger of falling down, then why are we just not scared or even bothered by these trillions and trillions of tons of water suspended in the air above our heads? Not a single visible pillar to support this massive weight!!!

067 Who, is in Charge?

Why is it that we try to take water out of the ground, but we never try to develop technology to condense water from the air in to our overhead water tanks surely this should be a free and never ending source of water, to every household! We are all very good at observing, recording and giving some explanation of what we see of the workings but we just do not meditate on how this came about. Who thought it out? Who designed it? Who modulates it? Who regulates it? Every aspect of this phenomenon which we simply call the water cycle is amazing and too neat to be called some order in this random chaos! Let us look at this Aayath in the Holy Quran Sura Raad (13) Aayath No 2

Actually when we look around what we call nature there is no random chaos. Everything is in order, precise mathematical order and we refuse to admit or to search for the obvious that there has to be someone in charge. Some huge power, which has always been present, and will always, be present. That power is God, to us Muslims; that Benevolent Power is Allah Taaalah! If we were to visit a well run mechanized factory, we would observe a number of processes being performed by machines we would be amazed at seeing how raw material is fed into the machines, by a conveyor belt, and then as each machine finishes a process, the product goes from machine to machine, each machine subjecting the product to some process, till finally we have what we call the finished product. We describe each process or each machine, our words indicate that each machine is doing a designated task but we all know that these machines cannot perform these tasks, but there are actually people who have designed these machines, designed the layout of the factory and with great care manage the workings of the factory.

067 Who, is in Charge?

Similarly when we see what is happening in the Skies above - in the Universe, when we see what is happening on the Earth as well as within this Earth, and also what is happening in the space between the Skies and the Earth - that space that we call the atmosphere? Oh, there are so many millions & millions of processes going on in all of them then should we not realize that it is not the sky or the earth or the atmosphere doing or carrying out all these well designed, well coordinated and well managed processes. They could be likened to the machines in the factory that there has to be a great benevolent power that has planned, designed and is managing this amazing system. These systems, systems within systems, within systems. These processes. These processes within processes within processes, and all working together, like in some large super efficient indescribable factory? Some of say we cannot believe there is this power, this benevolent power. Why? Simply because they say they cannot see him. They can see the systems, they benefit from the system, they enjoy life, they plan their lives, they survive, because of these systems. They would just go berserk if the systems just malfunctioned something unthinkable and then they say we cannot believe because we cannot see. There are many things we do not see but we believe in. For example all of us use Mobile Phones at the top of the screen we have two indicators that show bars one shows the signal strength and the other the battery strength. We cannot see the signals, we cannot feel the signals, we cannot see the charge in the battery, but we know that some meter that is built in to our Mobile Phones can detect these as well as display this information. We cannot see the signal, we cannot see the charge but we read the indicators we read the signs! We see people are alive why do we say they are alive because they move, they talk, they breathe and so on. If all this stopped we try to detect certain signals in their bodies which we call the pulse, or blood pressure sometimes even resorting to an ECG. But then sometimes even these indicators inform us that there is no life. We do not see life. All organs are present but that thing that we cannot see, which we call life is not present. We read the indicators the signs! Similarly we can observe the world working we do not need a God meter to realize that someone is well and truly in charge. The phenomena themselves are the meters, the indicators the signs. We make use of these systems and processes but we just cannot take in charge of them or even change them. Then who plans? Who designs? Who controls? Who manages? Then who is in charge? We have been placed on this earth with some elaborate and amazing systems working all around us. We make use of these systems, but we do not know how to recognize its planner, its designer, its creator, its manager, its sustainer and so on.

067 Who, is in Charge?

We do not pause to think that just like the Universe and the Earth has been planned, designed, created and managed, we too have been planned designed, created, sustained and managed. By whom? How do we detect and recognize that Power? What would be the objective of that Power? If we lived our life on Earth enjoying all its pleasures, suffering all its disasters and in this life time we were not able to realize this fact and search for what is often called the ultimate truth then dont you think that we have all lost direction? Let us just look around and awaken this thought in our heads Who manages all this? Who is the planner, the designer, the manger and the sustainer of all this the Universe, the Earth and all living creatures. Who is in charge? We do not see life, but we can detect it. We do not see this power, but we can detect it. How do we detect life? By its energy, by its movements and by its dynamism. Similarly how do we detect this great benevolent power which we refer to as the omnipresent God or Allah Taaalah Allah the exalted? By observing the magnificent systems and processes designed to work in our favor in the Universe, on Earth and in the atmosphere. It is impossible to describe all or even 1/Millionth or Billionth or even a Trillionth of these systems and processes, but let me at least briefly describe some, the ones that are obvious to me. Let me begin by describing the Universe or what we call space or the heavens the area outside our atmosphere. This area is huge, huge, huge. We need light to understand it and we use light to measure it. Light travels at 300,000 kms per sec. Yes, 300,000 kms per sec! This means that light travels at 9.461 Trillion Kms per year, or 6 Trillion Miles per year. This figure is usually referred to as I light year, and is a convenient unit to describe distances in the Universe. There are other units as well. The Sun is at an average distance of 150 Million Kms or 93 Million miles away. Since light travels at 300,000 kms per sec, the light from the sun takes app 500 secs to reach earth that is around 8 mts 20 secs. The Sun is a star with 9 planets revolving around it. Earth is the 3rd Planet. The Sun together with the system that consists of its 9 planets are called the Solar system. Ours is not the only Solar System in this Universe.

067 Who, is in Charge?

Our Solar system belongs to a conglomeration of over 100,000 million stars that is a over 100,000 million solar systems and that conglomeration is called the Milky Way, which is a Galaxy. The Universe contains over billions of galaxies. Our galaxy The Milky Way is not the largest; it is just an average sized Galaxy. The largest Galaxy thus far detected is called the Andromeda Galaxy and it is 2 million light years away. Thus when we view Andromeda, we actually see the light form it reaching the Earth. This light that we see is what left Andromeda around 2 million years ago. The edge of the observable Universe is some 14 Billion Light years away!!!! So, it is also possible that by examining space, what we see, can also be dated. Thus the further we see, the further back in time is what we see. In this manner Astronomers have compelling evidence to show that the Universe came in to existence around 13.7 billion years ago. Before that, there was no space there was not time. Time space and matter all came into existence in an infinitesimally finite fraction of a second. This is what we call the Big Bang There was no space, no time nor any matter before this. Who created all this? Out of seemingly utter chaos we have this beautiful arrangement, systems and processes all working immaculately, with precision mathematical precision and all working together can we not detect the signs of a great power, a great God can we not detect Allah Taaalah? It is very unfortunate that we live in an age that all our cities are lit up. We cannot appreciate the beauty and the wonders of the night sky. But if we did have the opportunity and the time to do so it is worth the time effort and energy to go out to unlit places and meditate on the wonders of the Night Sky. For maybe over 10,000 years of human habitation on Earth, man has been studying the sky and his observations have continued to astound him. Imagine yourself as one of your ancestors, living 10,000 years ago. Your reality consists of a few tools, some household utensils, perhaps buildings (the city-states were beginning to appear along the Tigris River), and, of course, all that nature has to offer: trees, hills, plants, rivers, streams and the sky. The sky is the biggest, greatest, most spectacular object you know. Lacking electric power, your working hours are largely dictated by the presence of the Suns light. As the Suns glow fades and your eyes become accustomed to the night, the sky gradually fills with stars. Thousands of them shimmer blue, silvery white, some gold, some reddish, seemingly set into a great dark bowl, the celestial sphere, overarching the flat Earth on which you stand. Ten thousand years ago, the night sky wasnt lit up with the light pollution of so many sources of artificial illumination that we have today. Unless you travel far from city lights, in our modern world, you might go through your entire life without really seeing the night sky.

067 Who, is in Charge?

Early cultures noticed that the bowl above them rotated from east to west. They concluded that what they saw rotating was the celestial spherewhich contained the starsand not the individual stars. All the stars, they noticed, moved together; their positions relative to one another remained unchanged. (That the stars move because of Earths rotation, was an idea which took thousands of years to gel) The coordinated movement of the stars was in dramatic contrast to something else the ancient sky watchers noticed. Although the vast majority of stars were clearly fixed in the rotating celestial sphere, a fewthe ancients counted fiveseemed to meander independently, yet regularly, across the celestial sphere. The Greeks called these five objects planetes, wanderers, and, like nonconformists in an otherwise orderly society, the wanderers would eventually cause trouble. So for around 10,000 years Man observed the Sun moving daily from East to west. The Moon moving across the sky and daily changing shape, described as going through phases over approx 29 day periods. They observed every star rotating around a center the North Pole. They had a name for every visible star and they also had names for collections of stars which could be described as points on a drawing so we call these collections constellations and there were constellations describing many shapes. They also observed that around the middle portion of the sky 12 prominent constellations moved and each constellation dominated the sky during certain months these they called the zodiac constellations. So for almost 10,000 years our ancestors marveled at the night sky and could tell the season, the month, the day and the time as well as their location on Earth. We have lost that skill that was handed down from generation to generation for over 10,000 years. It is only over, maybe the last 100 years that we have lost the opportunities to wonder at the sky and that because of the convenience of electricity and the resulting pollution due to artificial light. I have only described a very small window of astonishment about the Universe. Similarly, the atmosphere itself is full of astonishing wonders, so is the Earth as well as what is within Earth. Are not all for this conclusive diagnostic evidence of a great Power planning, designing, creating, sustaining, controlling and managing. Do we not call this power God? I like to call him Allah Taaalah or Allah the most exalted. S 003 Aayath 189 to 191 (Please see next page)

067 Who, is in Charge?

Let us once again look at this Aayath in the Holy Quran Sura Raad (13) Aayath No 2

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067 Who, is in Charge?

This talk is the 5th talk in the series Is this what we are created for? or Why are we on Earth? The titles of the earlier 4 talks have been 1. What do we see, on Earth? 2. Who are we? Where do we fit in? 3. Our special benefits, on Earth 4. What makes us stand out? What makes us special? Todays talk was on the topic; 5. Who is really in charge? The topics of the talks for the next 3 weeks would Insha Allah, be; 6. What does God or Allah tell us about Himself? That is for next week Insha Allah! 7. Our special faculties how they should be used, how they should not be used. 8. The two paths. I sincerely pray and hope that all of you benefit from these talks as much as I have benefitted from doing research from the Quran and then preparing and presenting these talks to you. May Allah Taaalah guide us all and accept us all. Jazza Kalla Khairan. Assalamu Alaikum

Imtiaz Muhsin Colombo Sri Lanka crescent786@hotmail.com

You Tube Channel - HaneefanMusliman

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067 Who, is in Charge?

Series 2 The Talks numbered 054 to 071 is under a series titled Knowing Allah Taaalah or Knowing GOD The details of the scripts of these 16 Episodes (Talks) are as follows;
Talk No Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Talk Number & Title 054 Ilm Knowing Allah 055 Rationality - The Foundation of Islam 056 Is Man Special? 057 Ar Rahmaan - The Beneficent 058 Nature or GOD? 059 Our Relationship with GOD! Sub Series: 060 Is this what we are created for? (Is this what we are created for? Part 1) Sub Series: 061 What do we see on Earth (Is this what we are created for? Part 2) Sub Series: 062 Who are WE? Where do we fit in? (Is this what we are created for? Part 3) Sub Series: 063 Our benefits on Earth (Is this what we are created for? Part 4) Sub Series: 066 What makes us 'Stand Out'? What makes us 'Special'? (Is this what we are created for? Part 5) Sub Series: 067 Who is in charge? (Is this what we are created for? Part 6) Sub Series: 068 What ALLAH Teaches Us, About Himself (Is this what we are created for? Part 7) Sub Series: 069 Our Special Faculties How they should be used, How they should not be used! (Is this what we are created for? Part 8) Sub Series: 070 The TWO Paths 071 Is this what we are created for? A review of Parts 1 to 8 from the Sub Series Is this what we are created for? Date Broadcast Dec 9th 2011 Dec 16h 2011 Dec 23th 2011 Dec 30th 2011 Jan 6th 2012 Jan 13th 2012 Jan 20th 2012 Jan 27th 2012 Feb 3rd 2012 Feb 10th 2012 Feb 17th 2012 Feb 24th 2012 Mar 2nd 2012 Details of Picture on Cover Wellawatte Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka Parasangaswewa Mosque (a remote village) in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka Mutwal Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka The Akbar Mosque in Slave Island, Colombo, Sri Lanka Mosque in Matara, from the Southern Province of Sri Lanka Beach Mosque at Kalmunaikudi in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka A Mosque in the Kurnegala District, Sri Lanka Maradana Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka Colpetty Jummah Mosque, in Colombo, Sri Lanka The Jummah Mosque at Natpidimunnai, in the Ampara District, Sri Lanka The Devatagaha Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka A Mosque in a rural village in the Ampara District, in Sri Lanka The Jummah Mosque in Oluvil a village in the Ampara District, Sri Lanka The Dhanakawewa Jummah Mosque in a remote village in the Anuradhapura District in Sri Lanka Mosque at Madhavakulam in the Puttlam District, Sri Lanka A Mosque by a river in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka

Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Episode 14

Mar 9th 2012 Mar 16th 2012 Mar 23rd 2012

Episode 15 Episode 16

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067 Who, is in Charge?