Past Lives

"How can you disbelieve in Allâh? Seeing that you were dead and He gave you life. Then He will give you death, then again will bring you to life (on the Day of Resurrection) and then unto Him you will return. " The Holy Quran 2:28 Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only manipulated. This means that everything we see around us is made up of the same stuff that existed since the universe was made. We also know that we were made from clay which wasn't exactly alive now was it? Finally, one can conclude that since matter can neither be created nor destroyed, but only manipulated we can assume that in order to make us, some non living matter had to be used right? I.e carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc. Some of which, of course makes up clay. Carrying on, we all know we are going to die, THE END IS COMING MWA HAHA.., ahem sorry. And we all know that we are going to be ressurected. Funny, though in a way  we all do have past lives. Part of you, could be made of atoms that were once part of something else, like a dinosaur! Therefore, theoretically we could be, actually, we are as old as the universe itself. Now isn't that neat.

Night Time Soul Extraction

Here's something interesting: our souls leave us when we go to sleep! Here's some proof:

An evening prayer of our Prophet (SAW): "I am giving my soul to you and turning my face towards you and protecting my back by you. There is no shelter or runaway from you but to you. In your name I put myself to sleep and i will rise. If you hold my soul, please have mercy on it, and if you let it go, then please protect it for me by what you protect your good people."

The Quran 6:140 "It is He, Who takes your souls by night (when you are asleep) and has knowledge of all that you have done by day, then he raises (wakes) you up again that a term appointed (your life period) be fulfilled, then in the end unto Him will be your return. Then He will inform you what you used to do."

A quote of our Prophet (SAW) (I can't find it again but it went something like this) "The only difference between sleep and death is that you wake up the next morning"

This leads one to wonder why; why are our souls taken at night? Maybe because God wants to review them for something. Maybe they just get bored and go about graffitiing buildings and causing mayhem! ( O.k thats probably not it) Maybe this is why we dream. Our dreams are what are soul is seeing or experiencing, or maybe dreams are just the in-flight movie of our sleep. Still, if they can leave our bodies can our conciousness go with them? Maybe this is what out of body experiences are. At any rate, just thought I'd share this.

You know what's a fun time? Islamic questions and answer sites. A good one is sunnipath.org 

Quite a few answers on there, but I was most suprised to see some people asking how to deal with jinn. Some people on there claimed to have been/ are being bothered by them. One person said that a jinn shakes their bed, another said it pushed their sibling during the night. Some really eerie stuff. We know that jinn do exist and without appropriate steps can even share our beds and our dinners, so what can be done to prevent unwilled sharing of our homes and meals? Well:

1) you can move

2) you can never eat again (probably a bad idea)

2) you can live with it (make it pay rent! And you can have movie nights and do each others nails and hair and...O.k, i'll stop now. )

or you can:

1) Mention the name of Allah (SWT) when entering you home (keeps em out of the house)

2) Mention the name of Allah (SWT) when eating, so you aren't having dinner for 2.

3) Mention the name of Allah (SWT) when drinking, so they keep their filthy lips off.

4) Recite Ayatul Qursi before going to bed (protection from the moment you go to sleep to the moment you wake up)

5) Recite the last 3 surats of the Quran.

6) Make your home a Jinn-unfriendly by living with pious people, reciting Quran in it ( the entire Quran is a big plus), praying in it, and remembering Allah (SWT) much in it.

Jabir said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'When a man enters his house and mentions the name of Allah Almighty both when he enters and when he eats, Shaytan says to his companions, "You have no lodging and no meal." When he enters and does not mention Allah Almighty when he enters, Shaytan says, "You have lodging." When he does not mention Allah Almighty when he eats, he says, "You have lodging and a meal."'" [Muslim]

Muslims Contribution to Medicine

This was more or less what was included on the handout of a presentation 3 boys in my Introduction to Islam class put together on the Contributions of Muslims to Medicine. Quite interesting really, that 1200 give or take 100 years ago we could do all this. Yay us!

Hospitals

-Served all peoples regardless of color, religion or background

-Separate wards for men and women

-Separate nurses for men and women

-Provided baths and water supplies

-Qualified physicians only allowed to practice

-Medical schools associated with hospitals

Medical Education

-Training in basic sciences

-Clinical training

-Licensure examination

Bacteriology

-First medical description of smallpox and measles

-Suggested teh communicable nature of tuberculosis

-Use of alcohol as an antiseptic

Anesthesia

-Originated the idea of oral anasthetics

-Use of soporific sponge (basically a spong doused with anesthetics)

-Use of anesthesia caused a rise in surgery levels

Surgery

-Developed many surgical instruments

-First mention of hemophilia

-First ot use sections of animal guts for sutures (used animal guts to close wounds)

Opthalmology

-Foremost in treatment of eye diseases

-Words such as retina and cataract are of Arabic origin

-Developent of extraction of cataract (a cloudiness of the lense of the eye)

Psychotherapy

-Combined psychological methods and physiological explanations

-Recognized "physiological psychology" in treating emotional illnesses

-Developed a system for associating changes in pulse rate with inner feelings.

ProductiveMuslim.com

I could hardly believe it. A website that combines my love of lifehacks with my love of religion:


ProductiveMuslim.com


They've got articles on productive studying, increasing productivity, sleeping, and developing good habits, as well as videos, interviews, wallpapers, worksheets, a free ebook, and lots more, all from an Islamic perspective! The website manager's even planning on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, in what they're calling a the Kilimanjaro Challenge! 


This website is definitely worth checking out!!