This is a special edition dedicated to M. Fethullah Gülen, our beloved teacher and writer, who contributed to our magazine from the very beginning. After a life of service to God and to humanity, Gülen returned to his Creator on October 20, 2024.
“Read!” says an inner voice a sacred call a divine invitation. “Read!” cry the woods, the mountains, the backyard garden, the planets and stars, all of nature a universe of connections in support and solidarity, interdependent in harmony not in conflict, a priceless work of art, for us to reflect upon…
Real or Fake?
Reflections on How We Experience Life in the AI Age
“The picture reflects all the instructions. But something looks off, though I’m not so sure what it is.”
“The script is quite good…
Fethullah Gülen, the beloved teacher, author, and poet, passed away on October 20, 2024.
His articles, each a fruit of honest faith, deep thought, poetic refinement, and, yes, suffering, have shaped…
Fethullah Gülen, the beloved teacher, author, and poet, passed away on October 20, 2024.
His articles, each a fruit of honest faith, deep thought, poetic refinement, and, yes, suffering, have shaped…
...And the winners are:
1st Place
“Home Is Tucked Under the Smiling Sunflower Seeds” by Azra Ozturk
2nd Place
“Home Is Kobayashi Issa’s Cherry Blossoms” by Moon Taha Teen Nikita
3rd Place
“How…
Let's up the excitement a bit higher! Here is the Top Ten. Award winners will be announced very soon!!
“My Home, My Stability” by Michaela Harhajova
“A Mosquito Meets a Memory” by Maggie Whelan-C…
Countdown to the winners is around the corner! Here is the shortlist for Essay Contest 2024. We congratulate all the participants. Winners will be announced very soon. Please follow our announcements…
Economic inequality refers to the disparity of wealth or income between individuals or between the different groups in a society. According to Di Matteo (2014), economic inequality occurs primarily a…
Politicians and anti-Muslim activists frequently take to audiences and websites to criticize the term jihad as a form of Islamic supremacism, oppression, and violence. Muslim extremists, on the other…
Truth is to believe and to believe is to see the truth. Sometimes the truth is behind walls, beyond time, in the past, or buried deeply. But no matter how deeply hidden it is, we can find it if we lo…
Based upon what was mentioned in part 1 of this article, I will now discuss how the Qur'an views Jesus, a major figure in both religions. The paper concludes with the suggestion that the many paralle…
It is very interesting to note the importance that God places on children respecting and honoring parents. The fifth through the tenth commandments in the Ten Commandments deal with man's relationshi…
Laser Light in Biomaterials? Rachel Berkowitz. “Peacock feathers can be lasers,” Science, July 2025. With their impressive long tail feathers and eye-like markings, peacocks have a unique place in the animal kingdom. A recent study has revealed that these amazing birds have a secret: they can emit beams of laser light. According to this study published in Scientific Reports in July 2025, there are tiny reflective structures in these feathers which can amplify light into a laser beam. Lasers form...
Many appear to have found God, but many live far from Him. His name rests on the tongues, but hearts often remain largely blind. What is read and learned does not evolve into deep spiritual understanding. Understanding is not crowned with love, nor does it rise to the horizon of longing and passion. Despite bold claims made in the name of religion and belief, only tentative, crawling steps are taken on His path. Not for everyone, perhaps, but when one looks at the overall picture, it is hard to...
In 2024, I attended a conference on Alzheimer’s disease that brought together over 8,000 participants to share the latest advancements. One of the key topics in the conference was the discovery of biomarkers—medical measurements, such as blood test results, that aid in diagnosing diseases—for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Several speakers emphasized tau , a protein that accumulates abnormally in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, as a significant biomarker for predicting...
When I was twelve, I spent a summer in a small town where my family owned a grape farm. The vineyard stretched across rolling hills, its vines heavy with deep purple grapes—a place of beauty, but also of hard work. That summer, I learned a lesson about teamwork that has stayed with me ever since. One morning, my father announced it was time to harvest. He gathered the family—parents, siblings, cousins—and assigned us roles. The older cousins cut grape clusters, while the younger ones, including...
Imagine you are walking through a city park and spot a bag that appears to contain valuable items, with no one else around. You realize the bag belongs to someone who will likely return soon to retrieve it. Should you take it yourself? After all, you could use some extra financial help given your recent economic hardships! No one is there to see you. If no one will ever know, what is the problem with taking it? It might be a small loss to the owner, but it would be a significant gain for you! Why...
Literally meaning a master, an owner, a helper, a loyal one, or a guardian, a waliyy is one who is devoted to God with all their emotions and one who is taken by Him as a close friend. Such an attainment is called wilaya (God’s friendship or sainthood), and the greatest rank in wilaya is called qutbiya (being a spiritual pole). Perfect sainthood consists of servants being annihilated with respect to the carnal dimension of their existence and gaining a new, ever-young, and active existence on the...
tags:Islamic Sufism, Sufism, Emerald Hills of the HeartType:ArticleAuthor:M. Fethullah Gulenarticle_category:166Publish Date:2025-07-01 00:00:08Language:*
One of the important concepts in Abrahamic faiths is thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a profound sense of gratitude that involves recognizing aspects of our biological structure for which to be thankful. According to research, it has various positive effects on both physical and emotional well-being. "Whoever is grateful, it is for the benefit of his own soul" (Qur'an 31:12). Throughout history, religious leaders and philosophers worldwide have expressed ideas about the essence of thanksgiving. One...
One of the most fundamental laws of nature is known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Put simply, this law states that entropy, a measure of disorder or randomness, tends to increase over time. In everyday life, we observe this principle in the tendency of things to break down or decay: metal rusts, organisms age, and heat flows from warm objects to cooler ones until a balance is reached. In the language of physics, unless energy is supplied from outside, an isolated system will inevitably move...
When was the last time you looked at your work—or yourself—and thought, “It’s good enough”? For many of us, that’s a rare admission. The drive to be perfect—at work, at home, in our faith—can feel as constant as our heartbeat. But beneath the glossy surface of achievement lies a quiet exhaustion, one that’s become all too familiar in our modern world. Psychologist Thomas Curran calls this relentless striving “the perfection trap.” In his recent book, he describes how social media, workplace competition,...