Mathematical Relations in the Quran

I LOVE me a good proof. Not that I really need any more to validate my religion, but it's nice to see them, especially those that apply a bit more to me as an engineer. Well, I came across a delightful little paper titled "Numerical Miracles of the Holy Quran - Chosen Examples" from a little website called: Islamnoon.com


Here's the link to the paper: http://www.islamnoon.com/language/chosen%20examples.pdf


but how about a little taste of what they found? Here's my favourite:


Surat Al-Nahl (The bee) is Surat 16 in the Quran. 
Male (drone) bees have 16 chromosomes. Female bees have 2 sets of 16 chromosomes. 


Surat Al-Hadeed (the iron) is Surat 57 in the Quran.
They gave a relation between this and the median isotope of Iron, which they said to be Iron 57, but an internet search couldn't confirm this so I'm guessing science hasn't come that far just yet ;) BUT, by applying a geometric formula to the arabic word for Iron (they call it a Jummal, I don't fully understand it, but it's like numbering the arabic letters in their widely accepted order (there's a whole study around this)) ANYWAY, the Jammal of Hadeed (iron), turns out to be 26. Guess what the atomic number of Iron is. It's 26. 


Anyway, a lot of the stuff in the file is very mathematical (a lot of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) so you'll have to keep up a bit, but it's pretty interesting stuff. 

Quick Hadith

Hey, it's the end of term (and hopefully degree) for me, so it's been pretty crazy. I don't have a nice long rambling post, but I did come across this little hadith from Adaptive Solutions Inc's delightful iPhone App "Daily Hadith":




It was narrated from Ibn Umar (Radi Allahu Anhu) that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: "If anyone of you knew what was wrong with being alone, no one would travel at night by himself." [Sahih Bukhari]. 


That kinda freaked me out a little. Anyone want to go watch Insidious? :P

Qunut Nazila, The Supplication of Calamity

Last week I made a short post about a mid prayer supplication that we did during Jumaa prayer that I had never done before. Fortunately, last week we did it again, but this time the Imam said it by name, it is called Qunut Nazila, or the Supplication of Calamity.


Sahih Muslim, Chapter 94 is actually dedicated to it, but Bukhari's got some quotes too:


Narrated Muhammad bin Sirin: Anas was asked, "Did the Prophet recite qunut in the Fajr prayer?" Anas replied in the affirmative. He was further asked, "Did he recite qunut before bowing?" Anas replied, "He recited qunut after bowing for some time (for one month)."  (Bukhari Book #16, Hadith #115)


**By "for one month" I think they meant, RasulAllah (SAW) did this every day for a month. It seems there was an incident where Seventy of our men were killed by some men from another tribe who had claimed to be muslims:


Narrated 'Abdul Aziz: Anas said, "The Prophet sent seventy men, called Al-Qurra 'for some purpose. The two groups of Bani Sulaim called Ri'l and Dhakwan, appeared to them near a well called Bir Ma'una. The people (i.e. Al-Qurra) said, 'By Allah, we have not come to harm you, but we are passing by you on our way to do something for the Prophet.' But (the infidels) killed them. The Prophet therefore invoked evil upon them for a month during the morning prayer. That was the beginning of Al qunut and we used not to say qunutbefore that." A man asked Anas about Al-qunut, "Is it to be said after the Bowing (in the prayer) or after finishing the Recitation (i.e. before Bowing)?" Anas replied, "No, but (it is to be said) after finishing the Recitation."  (Bukhari Book #59, Hadith #414)


So, how do you perform Qunut Nazila? Well, it appears the nice folks over at Sunnipath have already answered nearly all questions anyone could have on the topic:


From: http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=3&ID=1621&CATE=389


a brief summary:


In the last rukaa of an obligatory prayer (it's not recommended for sunna prayers), stand up straight after performing rukuu (the L shaped bow with hands on knees for those of you just joining us), raise your hands to about chest level, palms facing the sky (typical supplication form I'm sure you've all seen it), and supplicate. 


It seems there is no exact supplication (trials and tribulations change), so supplicate for the removal of whatever calamity has stricken our good people at the time. There's no shortage of them these days: the nutcase ruining Libya, the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, the unrest in Syria (check out the BBC if you need some more). Also, since it's not a Quranic recitation, you could probably do it in your native tongue. I'm pretty sure Allah (SWT)'ll understand :)


Once you're done supplication, carry on your prayer like normal!

Mid Prayer Dua?

Two fridays ago, in Jumaa prayer, we did something I've never done before or knew we could do. 


After the Quranic recitation, right before the rukuu, we raised our hands and the Imam made what sounded like a dua. It was all in arabic, but it had the structure of a dua (there were male and female versions of the same words and it had a repetitive structure, you know: forgive all the believers men and women, and all the muslims men and women...) and I'm pretty sure I heard something about helping the people of Libya. Then he said "Allahu Akbar" and we went straight to sujood, no rukuu, and continued the Jumaa prayer like normal.


I've looked for information on this practice, but so far haven't found any instructions. If anyone know's anything, please let me know! :)

No Post

Hey, still kind of reeling from projects, maybe I'll have something up later today, isA. Although, I need ideas for comic material (see last post), so if you have any stories that you think other muslims can relate to that would make for a good short comic, lemme know in the comments! :D

Comic: Whispers

There are these hilarious and sometimes entirely inappropriate comics online that usually centre around funny situations that happen to all of us. They made a way of making these comics, so I'm going to try my hand at them. This is my first attempt.

*DISCLAIMER*

THESE COMICS ARE PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND FOR US ALL TO HAVE A LAUGH OVER STUFF THAT HAPPENS TO ALL OF US AS MUSLIMS. THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EDUCATIONAL. 

The Artist Leaves a Signature

Was going to do an article on supplication in prayer (not regular supplication, but the prayer halting, pre-sujood supplication I experienced for the first time last friday) but found this MUCH more entertaining!

This website has a collection of images where you can clearly (mostly) see God's name written on things, mostly plants, but a few mountains and clouds too. And this baby which gets Quranic verses on it's legs every now and then, that's some weird stuff right there, but pretty cool!

http://www.islamcan.com/miracles/index.shtml