The Super Insect- Mosquito

The Super Insect- Mosquito

Allah said in the Holy Qur’an:}Allah disdains not to use the similitude of things, lowest (like female mosquitoes) as well as highest. Those who believe know that it is truth from their Lord; but those who reject Faith say: "What means Allah by this similitude?" By it He causes many to stray, and many He leads into the right path; but He causes not to stray, except those who forsake (the path) [26]{ AL- Baqara

The reason for revealing this verse is what Ibn Abbas said: When Allah spoke about the non-Muslims’ Gods and said: }And if the fly should snatch away anything from them, they would have no power to realize it from the fly [73] { AL-Hajj, and, also, talked about those Gods’ deception and said that it looks like a spider’s flimsy web in its weakness, non-Muslims said: Have you seen what Allah mentioned about flies and spiders in Qur’an sent to Mohamad. What is the use of it? So Allah revealed this verse.

AL-Hasan and Qutada said: “When Allah mentioned flies and spiders in Qur’an and gave examples of those insects, the Jewish sarcastically said: (It does not seem like Allah’s speech” so this verse was revealed.

Those verses show that all creatures of Allah (Praise & Glory be to him), lowest as well as highest, are signs that prove the existence of Allah, even if they seem trivial. Allah (Praise & Glory be to him) has left in them His signs and capabilities which confuse minds. In this verse, Allah (Praise & Glory be to him) disdains not to give an example of mosquitoes that illiterates consider them as contemptible while Allah disdains not to give an example of them to prove the splendid signs in the creation of mosquitoes. In this essay, we will reveal some secrets in mosquitos’ world to discover the contrivance of Allah in Mosquitoes.

In 1902, Ronald Ross, entomologist, got The Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Do you know why?

Because he had studied one kind of mosquitoes called Anopheles and discovered that it transfers Malaria by which ten thousands of people die yearly.

An entomologist spent years in laboratories and received the highest international prize just for studying one kind of mosquitoes, so does this little creature worth to be given as an example by Allah (Praise & Glory be to him)?

Mosquitoes’ Power:

Yellow fever is a viral disease transmitted to humans by a gentle mosquito which is the carrier and the main cause of Yellow fever. Even though, the relation between the mosquito and the Yellow fever was not discovered till 1900.

As a mosquito carrying the Yellow fever resides in a human habitat, the fatal illness usually spreads widely. During 1960-1962, an epidemic spread in Ethiopia killed about 30 thousand persons.

Margaret Humfreez, science historian, explained that carnages caused by Yellow fever are merely the only reason of establishing significant public health organizations in USA such as American Public Health Organization.

In governmental papers forbidden recently, we can observe the program of American biological war from 1945 to 1960. Yellow fever side-by-side to urban mosquitoes carrying the disease had major militarily prospects.

In 1953, working on mosquito-attack strategies began at Camp Derrick. Some benefits of those attacks were obvious because the virus was injected directly to a human body. As long as a mosquito is alive, the area, where it is spread, becomes hazardous since there isn’t known cure for Yellow fever yet. Population of Soviet could be dramatically infected by the disease because it will be difficult to organize a vaccination program on required rate. In 1956, experiments established in Georgia and Florida using uninfected mosquitoes. These insects were great carriers as mosquitoes spread over many miles square very quickly.

An entomologist called Andrew Spielman, a researcher of mosquito’s Diseases and a professor of tropical public health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), said in the book “Mosquito”: (there is no organism on earth touched the life of this huge number of people like mosquitoes)

Allah said: }and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He. And this is no other than a warning to mankind [31] {AL-Mudather

Mosquitoes’ Flying:

Scientists discovered that a mosquito called Culex pipiens must flips its wings about 500 times per second to fly in a reasonable speed equals three miles per hour.

Unusual Adventure of Mosquitoes:

It is known that a mosquito is a bloodsucker insect and it ingests blood. Conversely, this is not true because not all mosquitoes suck blood but only female mosquitoes do. Mentioning the mosquito in the feminine form in the Qur’an might be one of the miracles because the female mosquitoes are more powerful and complex. Also, they transmit the diseases and spread at houses. Male mosquitoes appear only in breeding seasons.

Female mosquito does not suck blood to feed on as it always lives on floral nectar, but it sucks blood only to feed the eggs. The difference between male and bloodsucker female that females hold the eggs which need proteins to grow. In other words, we can say that they preserve their offspring by this way.

Pincers for Breeding

Entomologists discover that adult male mosquitoes search for females using hearing sense, and that females’ audible range are not as powerful as males.

Females’ voice alerts males and is received by tiny feathers lies at the end of antennae. When breeding with a female, entomologists noticed that there is an organ in males next to the sexual organs to help in catching a female called pincers.

Males fly in flocks like clouds. If a female enters this group, a male starts breeding and catches the female while flying by the pincers. This process takes short time. Then, the male returns to the flock. After that, the female carrying eggs sucks blood of humans in order to feed the eggs.

Mosquitoes’ Life Cycle Briefly:

Females carrying eggs suck blood to feed the egg, and during summer or fall, females lay the eggs on moist leaves or near dry lakes. The mother mosquito searches for an appropriate place to lay the eggs by proboscis lying under its abdomen. When it finds the proper place, it lays the eggs - which are less than 1 mlm long- one by one or as clusters in one row. Another type of mosquito ties the eggs together and lays it after that. The number of eggs laid in one group is 300 eggs.

One or two hours after laying the eggs, they change their colors to black so it can not be identified by other insects, thus, killed, i.e. to avoid being a food for them. The most remarkable thing is that they change their colors according to the environment they live in.

Respiratory System:

In larvae that develop into mosquitoes, the main part of the respiratory system is the air tube or siphon that can take it out of water to breathe by. Larvae existing in water are suspended upside down, and to prevent water penetration into the tube, it secretes a sticky item from its body.

No mosquito knows about changes in colors of the mother mosquito, eggs and larvae. It is not created by the mosquito itself and it does not exist coincidentally, but mosquitoes were created with those characteristics.

Hatching from Eggs:

After the phase of eggs nursery, the larvae hatch one after another form the eggs. These larvae feed, develop and grow. Then, they change their skin colors. Larva skin is tough and easy to be broken. Larvae change their colors at least twice till their maturity.

The way of larva’s feeding is odd. “A very important mechanism present in the larva allows it to eat head-down in the water. Thanks to this mechanism, the larva, which cannot go after its prey, agitates the water and brings prey to its mouth. It creates a current in the water by the rapid shaking of the 4 sets of fine-haired brushes on either side of its mouth. Bacteria found in the water are thus guided into the larva’s mouth by the motion of the water. The larva also eats the bacteria that get stuck in these brushes”. Book of “Miracles in mosquito”, Harun Yaha.

These larvae live in water suspended and breathe via air tubes, like divers. They prevent the entrance of water in the tube by secreting special enzymes.

It is obvious that this creature does most of its work in extreme precision and sensitivity which assure its survival.

If it doesn’t have the tube to breathe or doesn’t have the sticky liquid to prevent water form getting into the tube, water will enter into the tube, so it will die. There will be no possibility to survive. This means that all the systems of a mosquito created complete.

Larva changes its color again, and then starts a new phase with another figure. Then, it changes into a tow-wing mosquito.

Holes in the air tube disappear in the last change (the latest insect) because the new insect does not need them as there are tow tubes in the sides of mosquito’s head by which it can breathe. Thus, these organisms get to the surface before starting the process of skin change.

When a mosquito gets out of a larva phase, it should not touch the surface of water by its head because one moment without air causes its death.

Larva is cut form the top to ensure the developing of the insect. This is the most critical phase in the mosquito’s life cycle as the entrance of water to the coating causes its death. Allah’s Glory is in that the cut part is from top, where the head goes out from it. For separating water from the insect’s head, Allah’s Glory made the head covered with a special kind of glue to prevent water from reaching it. This is very important because any air blowing might make the mosquito fall in water and die. Thus, it puts the foot first on water when starting the new phase.

There are some questions might come to mind such as:

How can a mosquito change the phases? How does it have this ability to change its skin three times and become a complete mosquito? It is Allah’s glory and contrivance.

The Internal Composition of Mosquito:

The Salivary Gland:

A couple of salivary glands is located in the thorax of a mosquito. Each gland has three lobes; each lobe has a central duct which is fused at the main duct of the salivary gland. The tow salivary ducts of the glands fuse together to form a common salivary duct extended in the head which has a whole in a small cavity called salivary pump where saliva runs forward in the salivary duct located in the tongue. The salivary gland has a crucial role in the transmission of Malaria by keeping “sporozoite”, the phases by which humans get the infection. Then, flowing out with saliva to the injury turned out by the insect.

The Digestive System:

The digestive system in mosquito consists of a small mouth cavity followed by a strong crop working as a pump to draw blood through the upper lip. A short tube passes through the neck called gullet which has three bags; two are approximately round-shaped located in the back and the third is extended in the abdomen and the back and might reach the third or the forth segment of the abdomen. Gullet, the foregut, is linked to the stomach, the midgut, by a short muscular tube called the first stomach, “proventriculus”. Stomach is extended from the thorax up to the special abdominal segment, and has a great ability to expand, especially the backside.

Adult mosquito can ingest 2-3 mlm in a single meal to extract the used azotic substances and eliminate them through intestines, the hindgut, out of the body. The intestine is a short and slender tube expanding to form the Malpighian tubules that has an outlet passage through the anus.

The Circulatory System:

The circulatory system in mosquito is an open system where blood passes through the body cavities and through which the digested food is absorbed from the digestive tract and carried to all parts of the body.

Heart lies near the upper abdomen wall. It consists of many long and thin chambers. Blood gets in by side openings in each chamber, and runs in one way toward head. The front part of heart is combined with a capillary called aorta which shapes the body cavity.

The blood does not have red blood cells, so it has nothing to do with respiration. It only carries the food from the digestive tract to other tissues.

The Respiratory System:

The respiratory system in mosquito, as in all other insects, consists of thin tubes called tracheas which have outlet passages on the abdomen and thorax segments.

Inside the insect body, tracheas extend, branch off and interlace in a particular way and go deep until combining with the body’s cell. The small tubelets of trachea are called tracheoles. They have rings or spiral from inside while tracheas do not have those rings and spirals. They start with exterior openings situated on the sides of body wall called spiracles through which air enters and leaves. Tow of those spiracles lies in thorax and seven in the abdominal segments; from the 1^st up to the 7^th.

The Nervous System:

The nervous system in mosquito is made up of a nervous cord consists of ganglia joint to each other by nervous fibers. A pair of ganglia exists in the head and called the brain; the front pair is above the gullet, and the back pair is under it. In the thorax, there are three pairs of ganglia fused into one. It is located next to the thorax wall near the abdomen. In the lower abdomen, there are five pairs of ganglia. The three pairs of ganglia of thorax and the pairs of the first abdominal segment are joint to the backside of the head to form the brain.

The Reproductive System:

It lies in the back of a mosquito abdomen in the circulatory cavity. In females, it consists of tow ovaries; each has a small tube called the oviduct. The tow tubes fuse in the abdomen to form a vagina, which has outlet genital opening located at the back of anus. The pouch duct, which receives and stores the sperms, besides the additional gland duct, which releases a lubricant called kerlex to accumulate the egg together to form the egg boat, end in vagina. The sperms are stored in the vesicle to be used by the female. In males, the reproductive system consists of tow testes, each has a seminal duct fuses together to form the ejaculation duct that has outlet passage in the genital opening.

How Mosquitoes Can Realize Organisms in Nature:

A mosquito has the ability of sensing the organisms by their heat. A mosquito can detect heat in the form of colors. This sense does not depend on sunbeams – i.e. light. The visual sensors equal 1/1000 compared to the heat sensors.

A mosquito has about 100 eyes in the head in a shape looks like the honeycombs. Mosquito’s eyes detect those signals and transfer them to the brain.

Only females lives on blood while males live on nectar and plants secretion.

When a mosquito sucks blood, it uses an elusive technique. The complicated system used is as following:

When a mosquito lands on the prey by smelling its blood first to check whether it is appropriate or not, if it was not, it leaves and finds another food. If blood is appropriate, it searches a proper thin place which has a heavy amount of blood such as the venule. Then, it determines a certain place by lips exist in the mouthpart.

It sprays that place with an anesthetic works like local anesthetics.

The mosquito has a needle, a hollow in the upper lip, which has a special cover used while sucking the blood. The skin is not pierced by this needle, as thought, but by the upper mandible which look like a knife, and the lower mandible which has teeth leaning inward that works and moves as a saw. The hollow lower lip has a lubricant liquid to gather the parts of the mouth to be as one organ. The skin is pierced by the upper mandible, which works as a knife, and in the piercing, the needle gets in till reaching the vein, and starts sucking.

As it is known, shortly after blood gets out in the human body, with the help of human enzymes, blood coagulates in that place.

So these enzymes cause a major problem to a mosquito because its piercing will be closed in a short time. That means it can not suck the blood. However, such problem does not face a mosquito as it forms a substance in its body and injects it in the piercing of a person to prevent the coagulation. Also, these anticoagulants cause inflammation of the skin, so the blood impels toward it. Thus, it continues bloodsucking. When a mosquito bites a person in a certain place, this place swells and itches as a result of the anticoagulants secreted by the mosquito.

Undoubtedly, all these duties give us many questions such as:

1. How does a mosquito know about this enzyme which coagulates the blood?

2. How does a mosquito prevent the coagulating enzyme by forming special anticoagulants? How it knows about these chemicals? How do all these processes happen?

3. How does this insect form such enzyme autogenously, and transmit it by its techniques to the human body?

4. Where does a mosquito get this information from?

The answer of all these questions is simple. A mosquito can not do anything because it does not have a perceiving brain, information about chemistry, nor a laboratory to form these anticoagulants. The insect we are talking about is a few millimeters long, and does not have a mind, nor education. The Creator of the human being and this mosquito, unusual super insect, who gave it such an amazing super system, is the Creator of the humans and the one who can recreate him in the Judgment day.

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Written by: Feras Nour AL-Hak.

Turkish author: Harun Yahya

The Magazine of “The New York Review of Books”, by: Richard Horton, Translated by: Ahmad Mahmood. This essay was published in the magazine of “Weghat An-Nathar”, Issue no. 44, 2002 under the title of “Mosquitos”

Translated by: Reem AL-Sayed

The Pioneering Role of Women Under the Umbrella of Islam

The Pioneering Role of Women Under the Umbrella of Islam

By Dr. Nazmy Khalil Abulata

Translated by :Yasmine Mohummed Moslim

Revised by : Magdy Abd Al-Shafy Abd Al-Gawad

Studying the History of Islam and the holy history of the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a careful objective way, regardless of the misunderstanding of some Moslems today, one will be introduced to the pioneering role of Moslem women. Such a leading role was emphasized through protecting the Call to Islam, martyrdom for the sake of God, sacrifice, consultation, medical treatment, struggle, giving opinion, learning, and bringing up children, all of which are proved by events, facts and true reports of Sunna [1] and Islamic Histo

1.Khadija, may God be pleased with her, is the first believer in Islam:

When Muhammad, peace be upon him, returned from the Cave of Hira for the first time, he went to Khadija (his wife), May God be pleased with her, and said, "Cover me! Cover me!(out of fear as he has already saw the angel Gabriel ). She covered him till his fear was over and after that he told her everything that had happened and said, "I fear that something may have happened to me." Khadija replied: "Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the destitute and calamity-afflicted ones." Khadija then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqa bin Naufal, who was an old learned man. Khadija said to Waraqa, "Listen to the story of your nephew, O my cousin!" Waraqa asked, "O my nephew! What have you seen?" Allah's Apostle described what he had seen. Waraqa said, "This is the same one who keeps the secrets (angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses.[2]

Imam Ahmed has reported that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said (about Khadija): “She believed in me when others disbelieved in me, she affirmed my faithfulness when others accused me of lying, and she supported me with her money while others deserted me”.

The pioneering role of Khadiga, may God be pleased with her:

Khadija, May God be pleased with her, played a pioneering role. She never abandoned the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, in trouble. Furthermore, Muhammad, as a man, never devalued the opinion of Khadija, as a woman. He never ignored her advice. Instead, he accompanied her to her erudite cousin where she started the discussion and showed leadership, which was not disapproved by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Also, he never felt ashamed that he was weak in the beginning of the receiving the Devine Revelation while she coped well with the situation.This is, actually, a lesson for male degree holders; today some of them degrade women and their role.

2.Sumaya Bint Al-Khayat, may God be pleased with her, the first martyr in the History of Islam:

She encountered the polytheists with strength of a female believer who had a firm will and died of excruciating torture. Although unbelievers used to beat her belly and her private parts with a steel bar as they became filled with rage at her pioneering attitude and resistance. In spite of her slavery and torture, she was strong and venerated. On the contrary, in spite of the pretended mastery of polytheists, they were very humble before her.

What a heroic role! What great honour a Muslim woman had when she became the first martyr in the history of Islam! O slaves of manhood, wake up! O those who have a complex about womanhood, I wonder which man did as Sumaya , may God be pleased with her, did.

3.Asma’[3], may God be pleased with her, was the first one to have risked her life for Islam (commando ) in the History of Islam:

She played the role of a commissariat for the Immigrants army and the role of an intelligence agency as she used to transmit necessary information of the enemy . It has been narrated in Sahih Muslim that when Al-Hajjaj crucified her son, Abd Allah Bin Al-Zubair, may God be pleased with him, (and sent his messenger to her, she refused to attend his court. So, Al-Hajjaj came to her himself). “How do you find what I did with the enemy of God?”, Al-Hajjaj said. “I find that you ruined his life, while he ruined your hereafter life,” she replied. “I have been informed that you call him: the son of the Woman of the Two Belts. I swear by Allah, I am the Woman of the Two Belts;With one of them, I suspend high the food of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and Abi Bakr, making it out of the reach of pack animals. The other is the necessary belt for a woman . the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us that, in Thaqif Tribe, there would be born a great liar and a great assassin . We have seen the lair,(Mussailama), and I do think the murderer is none but you.” Thereupon, he (Al-Hajjaj) stood up and never replied to her.

These are only some snatches of the courage of Asma (a woman), May God be pleased with her, who were one who confronted the tyrants, Al-Hajjaj, (a man who was a case in point) and supported reformers and prophets (the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and immigrants with him, may God be pleased with them).

4.Umm Salama, a woman who rescued Muslims from ruin:

On the day of Al-Hudaibiya Treaty, people disobeyed the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and therefore, Muslims were about to ruin.[4] God has protected them with the wisdom of Umm Salama, may God be pleased with her, and her good advice. Imam Al-Bukhari has reported that: “when the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, concluded Al-Hudaibiya Peace Treaty with Quraish Tribe, he said to his companions: ‘Get up and butcher your sacrifices then have your head shaved’. By God, no one did so although he repeated his order three times. When none of them got up, he went to Umm Salama (his wife) and told her about what people did. She said: ‘O Prophet of God, do you want them to follow your order? Go out, do not speak to any of them till you butcher your she-camel (sacrifice) and call your barber to shave your head’. He got out and did not speak to anyone till he did that, viz. butchered his sacrifice and called his barber to shave his head. When Muslims saw that, they got up, butchered their sacrifices and shaved the heads of each other”.[5] It is the fraternity of Islam appearing in how Umm Salama rescued Muslims from the disobedience of their Prophet. Furthermore, he, peace be upon him, never devalued her advice, as some men do nowadays (with their wives). Instead, he followed her advice. I wonder if men today try to draw a lesson from that.

5.Umm Atiya, may God be pleased with her, defended men:

Imam Al-Bukhary reported that the husband of Umm 'Atiyya participated in twelve military campaigns (Ghazawats) with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Umm Atiya accompanied him in six of them. Imam Muslim narrated on the authority of Umm 'Atiyya, the Ansarite, who said: I took part with the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, in seven battles. I used to stay behind in the camp of men, cook their food, treat the wounded and nurse the sick.[6]

On the day of the Battle of Uhud, when men ran away, she resisted and defended the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. So, she used to stand up for Muslim men and their Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

6.The first military field hospital established by a Muslim woman:

It is mentioned in the history of Islam that Raffida, may God be pleased with her, set up the first mobile military field hospital in the History of Islam. She pitched a field tent where medical care was provided for the wounded.

In short, had we try to mention the glorious feats of women in the History of Islam, we would find that such pioneering feats are countless. I wonder how far women nowadays tread in the steps of those of the early age of Islam.

remarks

(1)Sunna: The deeds, sayings, and silent approvals of the Prophet Muhammad; this constitutes the second source of Shari'a (the Islamic Law). It is obligatory for Muslims to follow the Sunna as well as the Quran.

(2)Al Jaami` Al-Saheeh, Vol.1, No.1-3 and Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Number 0301.

(3)Al Jaami` Al-Saheeh, Vol.1, No.1-3and Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Number 0301.

(4Asma' bint Abi Bakr (died 73 A.H.) : A meritorious female Companion, she was one of the first to adopt Islam. She was called "the Woman of the Two Belts" because she split her belt to bind the food she carried to Abu Bakr and the Prophet on their Migration journey. She composed good poetry, and was the last woman immigrant to die.

(5When disbelievers agreed to the Treaty (of Hudaibiya), one of the things he stipulated then, was that the Prophet should return to them (i.e. the pagans) anyone coming to him from their side, even if he was a Muslim; and would not interfere between them and that person. The Muslims did not like this condition and got disgusted with it. disbelievers did not agree except with that condition. (Al Jaami` Al-Saheeh, Vol.3, No.3-874).

(6)Al Jaami` Al-Saheeh, Vol.3, No.3-891

(7)Sahih Muslim, Book 19, Number 4462

A former Rabbi embraces Islam

A former Rabbi embraces Islam

A Jewish rabbi settler in one of Gaza settlements, who dreamt to establish the Big Israel (one of the principles that Israeli people believe in ) , embraced Islam and converted to call for Islam among the Jews in Israel. The rabbi Yosuf Cohen ,34 years old, is a settler in a settlement in GazaStrip ,and one of Satmar's followers - a mystical Jewish movement .He came to Israel before four years from the USA, and was charmed by the religious movement Shas gleam ,but this charm did not last long. Yosuf Cohen decided to announce his Islam and his family's did too. Thereby, He has moved to live in the Eastern Jerusalem.

former Rabbi Yousif Khatb

Cohen's twisted way began at Karolin Distract where he became one of Satmar's followers. Via mediator , he met his wife Lona Cohen,with whom he got married before 12 years old and they have4 children. He decided to travel to Israel in 1998.So,he and his family arrived directly to the settle mental complex "Gosh gatif" in Gadir settlement in Gaza Strip. Many Zionistic ideas of establishing the Big Israel were in his mind ,but life in Gaza did not suit the circumstances of the newly-comer family, so the family decided to move out later and dwell in "ntitof" –a small city located in the south of Israel . Moreover ,Cohen began to go frequently to the old Jerusalem marketbecause of his work, and for the first time ,he started to communicate with Moslems. At some period, he corresponded with some religious Moslem men and began to read the Holy Quran in English.

However ,Cohen determined to cross all the boundaries, professing his Islam and changing his name to be Yosuf Khatab .In additional to that, his wife changed her name to "Gamar", and their children's names were changed and the children themselves study in an Islamic school ,and speak Arabic fluently while their father is at an advanced stage in learning Arabic. The family moved out to settle in the Al-toor mountain in the western Jerusalem and Khatab works in an Islamic charity organization in the city.

Khatab was not onlycontent with converting to Islam; but also adopted the Islamic stream of fundamentalists " known in Arabic as salfi" and became a promoter for Islam. Moreover, he set up an Islamic center for calling people to Islam ,which embarks vast activities between the Jew to embrace Islam and actually tenth of Jews embraced Islam because of his Islamic activities.

The family of Yousif Khatab

According to Khatab, Hamas movement typifies or represents the right methodological way of Islam, and he assures that the stream to which he belongs is against bombings actions .However, Israeli authorities have tightened up on Khatab since he professed Islam ,and they refused to acknowledge him as a Muslim until he obtained the admittance of the Interior Ministry after so many troubles, and by efforts made by the mediation of Jerusalem Economical and Social Rights Centre .Khatab criticized intensively the members of Shas movement to whom he was affiliated before his Islam, saying "I had come here because of the Rabbi Aofadia Yosif "the spiritual leader of Shas party" and I became Moslem because of him ,too. I had deepappreciation for him, and decided to give his name to my elder son, but I changed his name from "Fodafia" to "Abdullah" after becoming Moslem

Carrying no positive words in his heart , neither about the prime minister 'Ariel Sharon', nor about Israeli people; Khatb says ,"Moslems suffer injustice everywhere ,and Sharon heaps more on them" ,and it is the same for the former Palestinian government ,which did not gain any admiration from Khatab .As for his point of view about the middle east ,he was content with establishing Palestinian country,saying" the first goal is to establish the Palestinian country on the maximum land. Before arriving to Israel,he made up is mind that the religious party "Shas" is the nearest to him and to his beliefs. So , as soon as he arrived ,he joined the party and absorbed in the daily work , gaining many certificates as appreciation of his efforts, and a little by a little he came to a position in which he reached to a decision "I can not bear that anymore. I do not want to be a Jewish any more ".

He adds" this decision did not come hastily or spontaneously. I spent most of my time in correspondence and in logging on different sites on the internet, and during that time I knew a man named 'Zhada', and our relationship deepened. we talked with each other daily; religion was the centre of ourconversation", so he aimed at getting more knowledge about Islam. Day by day, Cohen aspired to get more about Islam , and he was possessed with curiosity. He says," At the beginning, our speech focalized on the philosophy of life, its importance, its beauty, and to which extent the Islamic religion affects man. Thereafter, our relation became deeper, till I realized that Zhada is sheik from the United Arab of Emirates in the Arabian Gulf, and he is conversant in religion". So, Zhada told him that he would phone sheiks in Jerusalem and he could reach them; they, on their parts, would elucidate more about the Islamic religion for him, and the contact will be easier via internet. As a result, Cohen accepted this suggestion after being attracted to this religion and convinced of its teachings. So, he proceeded to Jerusalem sheiks, who succeeded to convince him to abandon the Jewish religion and to embrace Islam.

Yosuf did not hesitate ,notifying his wife his decision .For his wife, she did not entirely oppose him. contrarily, she had the same enthusiasm to embrace Islam. Thereby, they both started to learn more about Islam, and to go deep into it, till they reached to a decision of going to the Legal Court in Jerusalem and register the family as a Moslem family.

Now, he is working on setting up centre for calling for Islam midst the Jewish themselves in Jerusalem in the old market ,near the Borag Wall ,and for enquiring about the Islamic religion, till now the number of people who embraced Islam through the center attained tens .He says that he pursues the course of the prophet Mohamed(Peace be upon him),and follows Ahmed Bin Hanbal school of legislation . Also, he learned the Islamic religion from the books and fatawa( opinions) of Sheikh Authman Bin Abdulaziz Bin Baz, Sheik Naser AL-Deen AL-Albani, Sheik Monthir, and Sheik Gasim AL-Hakee.

When he was asked about being a Jewish Rabbi, who lived in a settlement in Gaza, and suddenly converted to be a Moslem calling for Islam ,what is the reason for that?

He replied, " I lived in Gosh Gatif settlement in Gaza, but now I am hated in Israel, because of my Islam, and the reason of being Moslem is the monotheism of Allah.

Likewise, when he was asked" being a Moslem person ,wearing Islamic clothes , does that bring about problems when you are at state borderor when you in any Israeli office, do not they think that you are Arabian ?

"They were stunned when they saw me, and when they knew that my name is Yosuf Cohen ,they thought I was an Arab appropriating Israeli identity ,so I got exposed to detention for an hour or two hours at the borders check-point – Ghaza Palestinians were allowed in without problem . They just center their attention on me, because of wearing Sunna Moslem clothes. Stealing an Israeli identity for the Israeli border check points means that I am on my way to carry out a terrorist suicide. One time , my son Abdulrahman and I were arrested in the Aqsa Mosque and we have been detained for five hours. During these hours, they nagged me with questions about Islam to make sure that I am Moslem; that happened while I was living in Netfot settlement; they assured that I am Moslem when they let my son Abdulrahman pray in front of them, because they suspected me of being a Moslem . Moreover, I was subjected to arrest for many times, because of being suspected of stealing Israeli identity and of impersonating as a Jewish person who is trying to carry out a military operation in Israel.

Yosuf Cohen with his wife Lona, and his four children :Rah maim Shalom(11 years old), Hasiba(9 years old),Ezra(7 years old), Afoadia (5 years old),converted from the Jewish religion to the Islamic religion. Therefore, Yosuf Cohen and the members of his family has become citizens ,who has espoused Islam. Consequently, they have Arab names which are : Yosuf Mohamed Khatab(the father),Gamar Mohamed Khatab (the mother), Abdulrahman(the elder son),Hasiba ( she keeps the same name), Abulaziz (instead of Ezra), and Abdulrahman (instead of Aofadia).

Yosuf Khatab's decision of espousing along with his family's has provoked ado and cyclone in the Israeli religious assemblies ,especially in Shas party to whom he was belonged; many pressures has been executed upon him to change his mind, but he confronted these pressures forcefully ,and refused to submit. Afterwards, he was compelled to move out to settle in the occupied Eastern Jerusalem.

The reference

The source of article: taken from the Palestinian newspaper,"Dunia AL-Watan"

http://www.khoshkan.com/karwan/04hakham.htm

Running Wild, Finding Islam

Running Wild, Finding Islam

By Noor Aubie

"I would run wild through the fields and pick flowers and eat berries." I wonder where to start this story. I became a Muslim officially on January 1, 2006, in Damascus, Syria. But I made Shahadah in 2003 when I stood in a sunlit meadow and told God my hopes and dreams. The truth is I always feel like a "new" Muslim because there are so many things that I don't know. I stand with one foot in the Muslim world and one in the non-Muslim world. This is very painful, very harsh. As a basically self-taught Muslim, I have wandered the Internet and the bookstores in search of true Islam. I have had only a little direction, although I have received a lots of misdirection. It has been a struggle to get the facts right and weed out people's cultural beliefs. I made a point early on to learn Qur'an and Sunnah and leave everything else aside. I have struggled a lot to get where I am, and it has been both a joy and a heartache. My faith has only grown through this entire experience, although a few times I met up with really bad Muslim brothers, I really wanted to run and hide and cry. In the beginning, I thought people who were born Muslim were much better than me. What a shock for me to discover that I knew more than a lot of them. What a shock for me to realize that they do not "practice what they preach," even among themselves. This makes me really sad. The Ummah (nation) is in big trouble. In the beginning, I received very good support and guidance from brother Mohamed Saffie, and now I take classes at the IMO (International Muslims Organization) in Toronto, Canada. Imam Hamid Slimi, my mentor there, is an outstanding teacher and has a brilliant way of getting to the simple heart of what true Islam is. May God reward these two brothers with Paradise. There have been kind brothers and sisters along the way, but there are too many to mention here. May God Almighty reward all who have helped me and who continue to keep me on the straight path. I have also read some excellent books about Islam written by Muslims and non-Muslims, and I benefited from the good teachings of many Muslim scholars. And then there are the everyday Muslims, like the men and women in the group, in which we study the Islamic creed, who help me understand complex Islamic ideas and who make me a better person just for knowing them. I think my story really starts when I was a small child. I grew up in a rural area just north of Toronto, Canada. I have two brothers, but I was a very lonely girl. I mostly played on my own and had a great imagination. I went back to the church where I, as a child, had last known God. I remember being very young, maybe 3 or 4 years old, and lying in bed and thinking about life and death. I wondered about God's motives and who I would be if I had been born to a different family. Big ideas for such a little girl. My parents were always a little bewildered by me and my solitary games. I loved to climb very high trees and I would stay there for hours. Just sitting and thinking. I would run wild through the fields and pick flowers and eat berries. We were very poor when I was young, and my brothers and I fought all the time over everything. My parents were young and did not believe in "sparing the rod." These days we would say that it is child abuse, but we mostly survived it. The only time I could have my mother all to myself was if I went to church with her on Sunday mornings. I used to love to go and listen and smell the smells and look up at the great cross. It was probably the only time I did as my mother asked me to, the only time I was actually quiet. When I was a teenager, I became very rebellious. I was angry about my abusive childhood and about not feeling loved by my parents. My father would get drunk and beat us for the smallest infraction. I hated my family, I hated myself, and I ran wild with my bad friends. I looked around at my Muslim friends at work. These were good people, not terrorists. I remember always looking at the ground, not being able to look anyone in the eyes. I was always so scared. So I took drugs and drank with my friends to feel like I belonged somewhere, I thought God did not know me. I left home when I was 18 years old and traveled with a group of government-sponsored volunteers for one year. When I returned home I went to college and became a Child and Youth Mental Health worker. I worked for two different government agencies and I saw all kinds of abused and broken children. It really broke my heart and my spirit. While I worked, I also attended university, working on my BA in philosophy and psychology. When I was 25, I quit both my job and school because I was so burned-out emotionally and physically. I was also suffering from deep depression. One spring evening, I decided to kill myself. I prepared the bathroom with towels and ran hot water in the sink. I took my sharpest knife and ran it across my wrist lightly, drawing only a little blood. Then I cried out in pain and fear to a God that I had given up on. And He was there. I felt an unusual pressure on my left shoulder, like a hand, and that was all I remembered. I awoke hours later, and the sun was shining and the world was new. To this day, I have no feeling in that place on my shoulder. I went back to the church where I, as a child had last known God. I cried every Sunday for a month, and then I began to study and after one year I was confirmed in the Anglican Church. And I met the man who is now my ex-husband. We were together for eight years before things began to deteriorate between us. The beginning of the end for me was when I was involved in a very bad car accident in May 2001. An elder man slammed into the rear of my stopped car. He was driving 80 kms per hour when he hit me, and he pushed the rear-end of my car up against the back of the driver seat. I injured my neck, back, and shoulder, and badly damaged both of my knees. I went through a lot of therapy. After the accident, I could not concentrate and was very restless. I told a friend that I wanted to "fly away." All that summer, I felt an impending sense of doom. By September 2001, my marriage was ending and I was very unhappy. I was begged, threatened, discriminated against, verbally abused and laughed at. On 9/11 my entire world changed. I was so shocked and horrified. I felt as if God slapped me on the back of the head. Another wake-up call. The whole world shifted for me and I became aware of events and people I had never considered before. At first, I was scared, like everyone else. Then I began to wonder about what the media was telling me. I looked around at my Muslim friends at work. These were good people, not terrorists. I began talking to them. At first, I was interested in the geopolitical aspects of what was going on. Why did "they" hate "us"? Then I found out what Western governments had been doing in the Middle East and North Africa for centuries. No wonder "they" hated "us." While I was doing this research, Islamic ideas began to creep into my mind. I turned towards those who could help me in this area. Al-hamdu lillah, brother Mohamed Saffie took up the challenge, giving me reading assignments and teaching me basic Arabic phrases and the Arabic alphabet. I became ravenous for more information. Someone gave me an English translation of the Qur'an, and the words of God leaped off those pages and into my heart. I was so strongly pulled into this book that it felt like the words had been in my mind all along, but I had forgotten them. When I first heard the Adhan called, I cried and cried. Every thing I read and learned squeezed my heart tighter and tighter and filled me with both joy and sadness. Subhan Allah, I want to cry just writing these words. While Islam was finding my heart, I also had some difficulties with some people who were strongly opposed to my conversion. I was begged, threatened, discriminated against, verbally abused, and laughed at. I have lost friends and alienated my family, but in my heart I know what is right. I continue to be surprised and disappointed by both non-Muslims and Muslims. I hope my journey of learning never ends. And I pray that I can be what God wants me to be, that I stay on the straight path and that I am always humble before my creator, Ameen. I chose the Muslim name "Noor" because of Surat An-Nur: [Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah guides whom He will to His Light: Allah sets forth Parables for people: and Allah knows all things.] (An-Nur 24:35) So this is my story. It doesn't feel very unique or special. I feel so very, very small. A grain of sand in God's ocean. I try to honor the gift I am given everyday.

A Typical Aussie Turns to Islam

By Selma Cook

I saw the Muslim women as being strong and empowered, yet they were gentle and kind. Picture © Reuters.com This article is based on an interview with Fatimah Suhot, who has now been a Muslim for 25 years. I was a typical Australian girl living in Sydney. An only child, I grew up in a stable home and happy family life. My mother was a liberal Methodist; she was not strict, but I went to Sunday school every week. My father was not religious at all. He had fought in World War Two against the Germans and the Japanese, and he had seen the horrors of war. He ended up a man without faith. Even though I regularly attended Sunday school, I was not a religious girl; I felt something lacking in the concept of Christ as taught in the church. Still, I used to pray from my heart, and on an everyday basis, I did take religion into account. In high school, I learned French, German, and Indonesian, and when I finished year 12. I went to Indonesia for a three-month holiday. This was a turning point for me. While I was in Indonesia, I received the good news that I had been offered a scholarship to go to university, so I had to return to Australia earlier than planned. At university, I studied education and continued to learn Indonesian. During that holiday in Indonesia, I saw how Muslims live. I taught conversational English and got to know many people on a personal level. Most of the people I met were not practicing Muslims, but I went to the mosques and I saw Muslims fasting. While studying Indonesian, I had to learn something about Islam because it is a part of the life of Indonesians. What I had at this point was an outsider's knowledge. However, I was beginning to recognize the spirituality of Indonesian Muslims. I saw that they were happier and calmer than Australian people, and that happiness and calm made me feel refreshed. I read the Gospel of Barnabus and it touched me deeply. This experience gave me a taste of Islam, and I started to travel to Indonesia as frequently as I could. I kept in contact with my friends there, and I extended my visits to Singapore and Malaysia. At the end of the third year of university, I felt tired. So for the sake of wanting something different, I went to Europe, especially the UK. In comparison with Indonesia, I found places there quite unimpressive. The gothic cathedrals looked overbearing and lacked the warmth and naturalness of what I had seen in Indonesia. Still, I was unsure about Islam. It was a friend of mine from university who became a means of me meeting Indonesians and Malays in Sydney; in this way, I met my soon-to-be husband.. I kept in contact with my Indonesian friends back in Indonesia and with my new Indonesians friends living in Australia. I was able to learn more and more about Islam. I was impressed by how Indonesian Muslim women covered and how modest they were, even though not all of them were practicing. This way of thinking led me to have something in common with my husband who is Malay from Singapore. I met my husband in Sydney. He was basically practicing the main tenants of Islam, and for five or six years we used to see each other in gatherings. Studying at university had given me a love of reading and I was inspired, using the academic approach, to attend lectures about Islam. My long-term friend from university, who had traveled with me many times and with whom I shared the same friends, converted to Islam before me. When she converted, I became even more interested to attend lectures and ladies' classes about Islam. I also linked up more closely to the Malay and Indonesian communities in Sydney. [My mother] was racist and believed that Australia should only be for the "Australians" — the white Anglo-Saxons. What I liked about my first contact with the Muslim community was that there were no priests or clergymen. I found Islam very simple and logical. I admired the social system in Islam and saw that it answered the everyday problems we face. I discovered that Islam filled in the gaps that still existed in Christianity in the field of women's rights. I saw the Muslim women as being strong and empowered, yet they were gentle and kind. Also, the story of Jesus (peace be upon him) in Islam made much more sense than what I had been told in Christianity. I read the Gospel of Barnabus and it touched me deeply. I went to the mosque to ask for more books. Some Muslims put me off converting to Islam, telling me to read more even though I felt I wanted to convert. I was working as a teacher when I converted to Islam. It was actually my future husband's relatives and friends who witnessed my Shahadah. My husband approached me through his cousins to marry me. This made me feel honored and respected. By that time, my father had died and my mother was quite biased against Islam. Strangely enough, when I became interested in Islam she became more religious in her faith. Unfortunately, she was racist and believed that Australia should only be for the "Australians" — the white Anglo-Saxons. My husband was Asian and Muslim — understandably, my mother and I did not talk for one year! The community I had grown up in backed off from me, but I managed to cope because I had many friends in the Muslim community. I absolutely loved the sisterhood and brotherhood I found in Islam. I have made even more friends since I became a Muslim! Now after 25 years of becoming a Muslim, my relationship with my mother is superficial because she has been affected by media propaganda against Islam and Muslims. However, I have never been happier and I do not regret a thing.

Selma Cook is Managing Editor of the Youth Section and Volunteer Youth Resource Network at IslamOnline.net. She has written a number of books including: Buried Treasure (An Islamic novel for teenagers), The Light of Submission (Islamic Poetry). She has also edited and revised many Islamic books. She can be contacted at: youth_campaign@iolteam.com.