A truly grateful person should not have any pride -an impurity of the soul.

 A truly grateful person should not have any pride -an impurity of the soul. Gratefulness supersedes or removes the impurity. Who is an actually grateful person - a person who remains thankful to the Creator of the universe for His numerous mercy and all those people for their kindness or help. But is it possible for a person to be truly grateful without accepting or obeying the Creator?

Basically, it is the pride or arrogance that makes a person reject the Creator or His mercy. There are other people (probably they are the majority) who do not like to think or discuss this issue – they want to be happy in the current lifestyle and dislike to explore the purpose of life and surrounding creations. So, they are also not truly grateful.

Can we guarantee completing a task after planning and deciding? There are many factors that must be fulfilled – we can not control all by ourselves. Since the Creator is the source of all energy and possesses complete knowledge of our body and surroundings, thus embracing everything in the universe with His power, his permission is always required for completion of anything. But, His mercy is bestowed on everyone (more or less) in this world, allowing most of our decisions to be fulfilled when we put in the required efforts.

Let's talk about the case of a Nobel laureate. Should the person be proud of the achievement? No. the person should be thankful to the Creator and those who directly or indirectly supported to achieve it. This is because the person received a lot of common and special favors when he or she first came to this word and in subsequent periods - good health and mind, intelligence, interest to explore new things, patience and sound environment. The person deserves some credit for his/her 'determination' to move forward, even though the surrounding environment and inherent virtues (gifted by the Creator) significantly helped in this process along with the permission of the Creator. Moreover, achievements do not always come from those inherent and acquired qualities, since there are many scientists who are equally or more brilliant but can not achieve such great success. It is the Creator who plays another crucial role by giving His special mercy to whomever He likes. Hence, we do not have the right to be 'proud', it is only the Creator who deserves all praise or pride. A proud person does not respect or understand the glory of the Creator and tends to be disobedient to Him.

Whatever we see close to and far away from us - whatever we touch small or big - whatever we smell and hear - is nothing but the expression and effect of God's energy or light.

Whatever we see close to and far away from us - whatever we touch small or big - whatever we smell and hear - is nothing but the expression and effect of God's energy or light. We are not exception to this - our whole body is a beautiful expression of His energy - given under the custody of our souls as part of the trials imposed by Him. So, God is everywhere - even in the burning fire or in the utter darkness - in the vast ocean or in the seemingly endless space.

We often underestimate the power of God who embraces the entire universe by His energy and knowledge - there is not a tiny sub-atomic particle or even any smaller one (yet to be discovered) which exists without His knowledge - because all belong to or are owned by Him and it is He who transforms His own energy into different forms from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies - the regulation of movement and interactions of these diverse structures is also delicately controlled by His energy and knowledge.

We (our souls) have been given the inherent qualities (slightly more or less) by birth and the provisions to acquire additional qualities (good or bad) throughout the lifetime, and the freedom to decide and implement based on those qualities and using our energy and bodily structures (created from God's energy). It does not mean that God left everything under the control of human beings for their worldly lives. If it were given, the human race would been destroyed long time ago though clashes between the groups. Therefore, despite giving enormous freedom to the people, God exerts control at different levels for each individual and each small or big population, in order to give special rewards or specific punishments for some of the deeds of an individual, a family, a community or a nation while preventing the clashes potentially disastrous to the human race in this word. He will keep the human race up to a period, ensuring a changing environment for each individual for the trial confirming who were really grateful to Him by submitting to His wishes and following His instructions in the holy book.

God is eternal - He was in the very beginning even before the creation of the universe and will remain even after the collapse of the current universe. He has His own unique appearance and existence located beyond the universe comprising seven firmaments while at the same time He is embracing everything in the universe with His knowledge and energy, because the universe was created by His own energy and knowledge - every visible and invisible mass is made of energy- an established fact although we do not really know the nature of this energy, most of which exists as 'dark energy' (responsible for universe expansion) and 'dark matter' (responsible for gravitational force, facilitating formation of solar systems, galaxies and other higher structures of galaxies (eg, clusters, chains). So, energy is everywhere including the space.

If, according to the universally accepted view, energy is constant and can neither be created nor destroyed, the Creator, the source of that energy is also eternal and He was not born from anyone or gave birth to none - He is absolutely beyond those processes which He exclusively made for the living systems in this earth.

The controversy and division on some critical issues over the centuries in the Muslim world was predominantly due to the lack of sufficient in-depth research on Al-Quran as the most authentic, the most valuable and the core source of knowledge. Some are highlighted below:

The controversy and division on some critical issues over the centuries in the Muslim world was predominantly due to the lack of sufficient in-depth research on Al-Quran as the most authentic, the most valuable and the core source of knowledge. Some are highlighted below:

1. Was it decided in the very beginning whether a person would be in the right or wrong pathway at the end of a lifetime? No. Allah gives a person enormous freedom to choose the wrong or right pathway. He wants to see what he or she will do under various circumstances as part of the trial imposed. So, it is illogical to ask why He does not know at the beginning the fate of a person. But, there are cases where after sometime if a person crosses a limit, his/ her fate is finalised with no more chances given thereafter and thus, Allah knows his or her faith from that stage. For others there will be chances for choosing and thereafter being steadfast in the right path till their deaths.

2. Was it possible for Allah to create a circumstance to enable all human beings to remain in the (same) right pathway throughout their lifetimes? Yes. But Allah did not intend to do this. Why? He plans whatever He wants. No one has authority to ask Him. He alone has the authority. Allah wanted to select and reward those people who fear and love Him and remain firm with faith in Him under variable situations ? They are His representatives (vicegerents) who possess some of His own characteristics? While he is extremely kind, especially in the worldly life, his punishment is also severe. He punishes for some of the bad deeds in this word thus giving a reminder and will punish in a more severe manner for all acquired bad deeds in the hereafter.

3. Is there any way based on the acquired prosperity in this world to predict who is in the right pathway? No. A true believer will seek mercy or rewards from Allah both for this world and more importantly for the hereafter, whereas those who are nor actual believers will seek mainly for this world. So, both of them will get favors from Allah in this world based on their efforts, but God will give relatively more to the former (actual believers). The disbelievers will also get favors or achieve successes in this world. This is because Allah has promised his mercy to all (more or less) in this world. In other words, this is basically Allah's trap or technique for so-called believers and disbelievers to magnify their sins (since they feel comfortable for what they are doing). However, during this time, suffering will come for some of their bad/ wrong deeds, acting as a reminder to change their paths. Finally, in the hereafter Allah's mercy will only be booked for true believers (or Muttaqin who fear Him in every step), while great sufferings will embrace the so-called believers and disbelievers.

4. Can one become a true or firm believer by one's own efforts? Impossible without Allah's help, but to get His help one needs to meet the minimum criteria or quality. By Allah's help one will attain the virtues purifying one's heart) - a position far different from those who are guided by his/her desires and further influenced and driven by external evil forces. As such, the Muslim community ( who claim themsrlves as belivers) fall into 3 classes: those who mainly perform bad deeds, those who do both good and bad deeds and finally, those who predominantly do good deeds owing to their fear for God and love for Him, proving themselves as the actual believers who deserve to go to the heaven ( whenever they do any bad deed out of ignorance/ mistake, they immediately repent, apologise to God and strive for the best not to repeat it.).

5. What are the good deeds that must be done to be actual believers ? Those mentioned in the Quran? It is not acceptable to Allah if anyone obeys some instructions and ignores others. Those who will do such will be punished both in this world and hereafter. Among the good deeds, they are some which are of utmost importance to purify souls, such as remembering Allah (for His greatness, His continuous mercy while seeking his help) during performing regular salat (prayers) with appropriate dedication as well as iother times, giving regular charity to needy people depending on how much we have (this is the most powerful action to protect us from hellfire (no one can be true believer without sacrificing what one loves much)., ensuring justice to others in every sector, which is close to fearing Allah ( Taqwa). If we can do the above it will be easier to do the other good deeds and protect us from immoral and bad deeds. On the contrary, deliberately conducting a forbidden act without repentance will induce the person to do other bad deeds. In other words, there is no way to be a true believer while deliberately conducting a forbidden act. As a matter of fact, the number of the true believers is very few, as revealed in Quran through the speech of the Prophet Dawud (Prophet David) while discussing with two people who entered his house with a dispute.

What are the basic differences between the tests given by us in our student life and professional career and the tests imposed on us by God according to the holy book (Qur'an) of Islam?

The tests designed by us to assess our understanding or qualification during student life and in professional career are significantly faulty, causing injustice and discrimination to us. Why?

1. There is no tool to judge before the test as to whether the candidates have received equal privileges

2. People have differences in their physical and intellectual capability for the tests due to genetic and environmental factors

3. The assessment tools might also be imperfect and so may not reflect the actual accomplishment at the end.

4. Those who assess the tests might be biased, prone to mistakes or do not fit for the evaluation.

What does the Qur'an say about the God's tests for human beings to ensure 100% justice:

1. People are being tested or they are accountable for their actions based on the capability given and circumstance applicable to each individual. In other words, tests for an intellectually or physically disabled or a poor person would be much easier than a fully healthy or a rich person.

2. Tests can widely vary in terms of category or intensity depending on the individuals of different genetic and acquired capability at different stages of life

3. People who are eager to find the right pathway from the bottom of their hearts are ultimately guided by God by enabling them to learn and follow the instructions of His book, while those who ignore it deliberately and intend to follow their own desires are allowed by God to stay in their own ways which consequently look fair to them. This strategy was seemingly designed by God to ensure the clear-cut difference in terms of objectives and actions between these two groups of people.

4. The assessment tools which were elaborated in Qur'an were designed by God to see who constantly and completely follow His instructions and thus purify their souls. Those comprise submitting to God by solely worshiping Him in His prescribed ways, ensuring full justice ( financially and with behaviors) to parents, family members, relatives, needy and helpless people, maintaining proper financial dealings,and controlling our sight, speech and thoughts

5. Every thought and action of every individual is being recorded and will be revealed and witnessed on the Day of Judgement as solid proofs, after the entire human beings are regenerated and gathered in the open ground with the subsequent and surprise appearance of God Who will act as the sole Supreme Judge

Is it a right decision to directly disapprove something which we can not see by our eyes?

We can see ourselves or the objects surrounding us, since the sunlight of different colours is either reflected or transmitted by the atoms of our body or the objects. In reality, any object made of atoms with vibrating electrons is known to either reflect or transmit light of certain wavelength and therefore can be seen by our eyes. But, whatever we see is mostly not the actual mass or particles of an object, since 99.999999...% of an atom's space is empty. Anyway, can we rule out the possibility of existence of objects consisting of no atom or sub-atomic particles? Similarly as dark matter (in the center of a galaxy) which carries no atom or sub-atomic particles and prevents light emission by its strong gravitational force, our surrounding might have objects possessing their energy in different forms rather than being stored in atomic and sub-atomic particles. If they exist, will we be able to see them?

Why does God want us to follow His desires in our lives?

As a father or a mother how do you want to raise your children as your future representatives? You definitely desire that they will not do anything that you dislike and will do what you like. Is it fair to expect such as a father or a mother? Your children may say that your desire is unjust, since they have their own identity. Will you accept it? No, you will not accept, since you consider them as part of your family, who should represent you.

However, there may be cases where parents could say that they do not mind if their children do not grow up according to their desires. To me this attitude is not normal considering the nature of human beings, but can be developed under certain circumstances.

Anyway, if parents have such desires for their representatives, why would God be an exception? If God created us as His representatives, He must want us to follow His desires in our life. In other words, God must have provided guidance for His representatives, similarly as patents guide their children. A question may arise concurrently why we are being considered as representatives of God. This is because the purpose of a human life in this world can be best justified by this concept.

Is the existence of 'soul' missing factor that could explain the cognitive skills and abilities of living creatures?

Unlike other animals, humans are not born with a lot of knowledge innately built in. They have to pass through intensive learning period. On the other hand, inexperienced birds, for example, construct nests comparable to those of adult builders on their first attempt. Nonetheless, living systems are generally born with certain level of knowledge or intelligence. However, till now we could not directly correlate these cognitive skills and abilities with the particular genes or proteins of the organisms. The existence of genetic template has yet to be proven. and apparently contradicts with so many innovative designs by human beings, which are not directly attributable to the roles of particular genes. Do we not like to think that every living system might basically consist of a visible structure and an invisible 'soul' carrying the innately built knowledge along with other unexplained attributes?