THE DESIGN IN PLANTS AND BIOMIMETICS

THE DESIGN IN PLANTS AND BIOMIMETICS

Fiber-optic technology, which has recently begun to be employed, uses cables capable of transmitting light and high-capacity information. What if someone were to tell you that living things have been using this technology for millions of years? These are organisms you know very well, but whose superior design a great many people never even consider—plants.

Because so many look at their world around them in a superficial way, out of familiarity, they never see the examples of superior design in the living things that God has created. But in fact, all living things are full of secrets. Asking why and how is enough to let you raise this curtain of familiarity. Anyone who thinks about these questions will realize that everything we see around us is the work of a Creator possessed of reason and knowledge—our All-Powerful Lord. As an example, take the photosynthesis that plants carry out—a miracle of creation, whose mysteries have not yet been uncovered.

Photosynthesis is the process whereby green plants turn light into carbohydrates that human beings and animals can consume. Perhaps at first sight, this description might not seem too remarkable, yet biochemists believe that artificial photosynthesis could easily change the whole world.

Plants carry out photosynthesis by means of a complex string of events. The exact nature of these processes is still unclear.  Just this feature alone is enough to silence the proponents of the theory of evolution. Professor Ali Demirsoy describes very well the dilemma that photosynthesis represents for evolutionist scientists:

Photosynthesis is a rather complicated event and appears impossible to emerge in the organelles within the cell. That is because it is impossible for all the stages to come about at once, and meaningless for them to do so separately. 38

Plants trap sunlight in natural solar cell parts known as chloroplasts. In the same way, we store in batteries the energy we obtain from artificial solar panels, which turn light into electrical energy.

A plant cell’s low power output necessitates the use of a great many “panels,” in the form of leaves. It’s enough for leaves, like solar panels, to face the sun in order to meet human beings’ energy needs. When the chloroplasts’ functions are fully replicated, tiny solar batteries will be able to operate equipment requiring a great deal of energy. Spacecraft and artificial satellites will be able to operate using solar energy alone, with no need for any other energy source.

Plants, which possess such superior capabilities and astound the scientists who try to imitate them, bow their heads to God, like all other living things. This is revealed in a verse:

Shrubs and trees both bend in worship. (Qur’an, 55: 6)

What mankind has to learn from plants isn't limited to solar cells. Plants are opening up many new horizons, from construction to the perfume industry. Chemical engineers producing deodorants and soaps are now trying to produce beautiful fragrances in the laboratory by imitating the scents of flowers. The scents produced by many famous houses, such as Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Pierre Balmain, contain floral essences found in nature. (“The History of Parfume;” http://www.parfumsraffy.com/history.html)

Protected Surfaces

Any surface can be damaged by dirt, or even by bright light. That is why scientists have developed furniture and car polishes, and liquids to block ultraviolet rays and protect against any possible wear and tear. In nature also, animals and plants produce in their own cells a variety of substances to protect their outer surfaces against external damage. The complex chemical compounds produced by the bodies of living things astound scientists, and designers seek to imitate many examples.

Coating wooden surfaces is important to protect them from dirt and wear and tear, particularly against water, which can enter and rot soft timber. But did you know that the first wood coatings were made from natural oils and insect secretions?

Many protective substances used in our daily lives were actually used long before in nature by living things. Wood polish is just one example. The hard shells of insects also protect them against water and damage from the outside.

Insects’ shells and exoskeletons are reinforced by a protein called sclerotin, making them among the hardest surfaces in the natural world. Furthermore, an insect’s protective chitin covering never loses its color and brightness. 39

Clearly, considering all this, the systems construction firms use to cover and protect external surfaces will be much more effective if they have a composition similar to those found in insects.

The external surfaces of leaves are covered with a thin, polished coating that waterproofs the plant. This protection is essential because carbon dioxide, which plants absorb from the air and is essential to their survival, is found between the leaf cells. If these spaces between the cells filled with rainwater, the carbon dioxide level would fall and the process of photosynthesis, essential to plants’ survival, would slow down. But thanks to this thin coating on their leaves’ surface, plants are able to carry on photosynthesis with no difficulty.

The Constantly Self-Cleaning Lotus

The lotus plant (a white water lily)grows in the dirty, muddy bottom of lakes and ponds, yet despite this, its leaves are always clean. That is because whenever the smallest particle of dust lands on the plant, it immediately waves the leaf, directing the dust particles to one particular spot. Raindrops falling on the leaves are sent to that same place, to thus wash the dirt away.

This property of the lotus led researchers to design a new house paint. Researchers began working on how to develop paints that wash clean in the rain, in much the same way as lotus leaves do. As a result of this investigation, a German company called ISPO produced a house paint brand-named Lotusan. On the market in Europe and Asia, the product even came with a guarantee that it would stay clean for five years without detergents or sandblasting. 40

Of necessity, many living things possess natural features that protect their external surfaces. There is no doubt, however, that neither the lotus’s external structure nor insects’ chitin layer came about by themselves. These living things are unaware of the superior properties they possess. It is God Who creates them, together with all their features. One verse describes God’s art of creation in these terms:

He is God—the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Qur’an, 59: 24)

During his microscopic research, Dr. Wilhelm Barthlott at the University of Bonn realized that leaves that required the least cleaning were those with the roughest surfaces. On the surface of the lotus leaf, the very cleanest of these, Dr. Barthlott found tiny points, like a bed of nails. When a Speck of dust or dirt falls onto the leaf, it teeters precariously on these points. When a droplet of water rolls across these tiny points, it picks up the speck, which is only poorly attached, and carries it away. In other words, the lotus has a self-cleaning leaf. This feature has inspired researchers to produce a house paint called LOTUSAN, guaranteed to stay clean for five years. (Jim Robbins, “Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice,” New York Times, December 11, 2001.) How a raindrop cleans a lotus leaf The effect of a raindrop on a normal surface The effect of raindrops on a building exterior covered with Lotusan.

Plants and New Car Design

When designing its new ZIC (Zero Impact Car) model, the Fiat motor company copied the way trees and shrubs divide themselves into branches. Designers built a small channel along the middle of the car, in a similar way as in a plant's stem, and placed in that channel batteries to provide the car with the energy it requires. The car seats were inspired by the plant in the illustration and, just as in that original plant, the seats were attached directly to the channel. The car’s roof featured a honeycomb structure similar to that in seaweed.This structure made the ZIC both light and strong. 41

In a field like automobile technology that freely displays the very latest innovations, a simple plant, living in nature since the very first day it came into being thousands of years ago, provided engineers and designers with a source of inspiration. Evolutionists—who maintain that life came about by chance and whose forms developed over time, always moving in the direction of improvement—find this and similar events difficult to accept.

How can human beings, possessed of consciousness and reason, learn from plants—devoid of any intelligence or knowledge, which cannot even move—and implement what they learn to achieve ever more practical results? The features that plants and other organisms display cannot, of course, be explained away as coincidences. As proofs of creation, they represent a serious quandary for evolutionists.

Plants that Give Off Alarm Signals

Nearly everyone imagines that plants are unable to combat danger, which is why they easily become fodder for insects, herbivores, and other animals. Yet research has shown that on the contrary, plants use amazing tactics to repel, even overcome their enemies.

To keep leaf-chewing insects at bay, for example, plants sometimes produce noxious chemicals and in a few cases, chemicals to attract other predators to prey on those first ones. Both tactics are no doubt very clever. In the field of agriculture, in fact, efforts are going on to imitate this very useful defense strategy. Jonathan Gershenzon, researching the genetics of plant defenses at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, believes that if this intelligent strategy can be imitated properly, then in the future, non-toxic forms of agricultural pest control could be provided. 42

When attacked by pests, some plants release volatile organic chemicals that attract predators and parasitoids, which lay their eggs inside the living body of pests. The larvae which hatch out inside the pest grow by feeding on the pest from within. This indirect strategy thus eliminates harmful organisms that might damage the crop.

Again, it is by chemical means that the plant realizes that a pest is eating its leaves. The plant gives off such an alarm signal not because it “knows” it’s losing its leaves, but rather as a response to chemicals in the pest species’ saliva. Although superficially, this phenomenon appears to be quite simple, actually quite a number of points need to be considered:

1)  How does the plant perceive chemicals in the pest's saliva?
2)  How does the plant know that it will be freed from the pest's ravages when it gives off the alarm signal?
3)  How does it know that the signal it gives off will attract predators?
4)  What causes the plant to send its signal to insects that feed on its assailants?
5)  That signal the plant gives off is chemical, rather than auditory. The chemicals employed by insects have a most complex structure. The slightest deficiency or error in the formula, and the signal may lose its efficacy. How is the plant thus able to fine-tune this chemical signal?

No doubt it is impossible for a plant, lacking a brain, to arrive at a solution to danger, to analyze chemicals like a scientist, even to produce such a compound and carry out a planned strategy. Very definitely, indirectly overcoming an enemy is the work of a superior intelligence. That intelligence’s possessor is God, Creator of the plants with all their flawless characteristics and Who inspires them to do what they can to protect themselves.

Therefore, current biomimetic research is making a great effort to imitate the astonishing intelligence that God displays in all living things.

Geocoris

Manduca moth caterpillar

One group of researchers, from both the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya and Britain's Institute of Arable Crops Research, carried out a study on this subject. To remove pests among maize and sorghum, their team planted species that the stem-borers like to eat, pulling the pests from the crop. Among the crops, they growed species that repel stem-borers and attract parasitoids. In such fields, they found, the number of plants infested with stem-borers dropped by more than 80%. Further applications of this incomparable solution observed in plants will make for still further advances. 43

Wild tobacco plants in Utah are subject to attack by caterpillars of the moth Manduca quinquemaculata, the eggs of which are a favorite food of the bug Geocoris pallens. Thanks to volatile chemicals that the tobacco plant releases, the G. pallens is attracted, and number of M. quinquemaculata caterpillars is reduced. 44

Fiber Optic Design in the Ocean Depths

"The Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, 'Be!' and it is." (Qur’an, 2: 117)

Rossella racovitzae, a species of marine sponge, possesses spicules guiding light as optic fibers do, which of course is employed in the very latest technology. The optical fibers can instantly transport vast amounts of information encoded as light pulses across tremendous distances. Transmitting laser light down a fiber-optic cable makes possible communications unimaginably greater than with cables made of ordinary materials. In fact, a strand no thicker than a hair, containing 100 optical fibers, can transmit 40,000 different sound channels.

This species of sponge which lives in the cold, dark depths of Antarctic seas is easily able to collect the light it requires for photosynthesis thanks to its thorn-shaped protrusions of optical fibers, and is a source of light for its surroundings. This enables both the sponge itself and other living things that benefit from its ability to collect and transmit light to survive. Single-celled algae attach themselves to the sponge and obtain from it the light they need to survive.

Fiber optics is one of the most advanced technologies of recent years. Japanese engineers use this technology to transmit solar rays to those parts of skyscrapers that receive no direct light. Giant lenses sited in a skyscraper’s roof focus the sun’s rays on the ends of fiber optic transmitters, which then send light to even the very darkest parts of the buildings.

This sponge lives at some 100 to 200 meters depth, off the shores of the Antarctic Ocean, under icebergs in what is virtually total darkness. Sunlight is of the greatest importance to its survival. The creature manages to solve this problem by means of optical fibers that collect solar light in a most effective manner.

Scientists are amazed that a living thing should have used the fiber optic principle, utilized by high-tech industries, in such an environment for the past 600 million years. Ann M. Mescher, a mechanical engineer and polymer fiber specialist at the University of Washington, expresses it in these terms:

It’s fascinating that there’s a creature that produces these fibers at low temperature with these unique mechanical properties and fairly good optical properties. 45

Brian D. Flinn, University of Washington materials scientist, describes the superior structure in this sponge:

It’s not something they’re going to put into telecommunications in the next two or three years. It’s something that might be 20 years off. 46

This all demonstrates that the living things within nature harbor a great many models for human beings. God, Who has designed everything down to the finest detail, has created these designs for mankind to learn from and think upon. This is revealed in the verses:

In the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people with intelligence: those who remember God, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the Earth: “Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Qur’an, 3: 190-191)

38 Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim (Inheritance and Evolution), Meteksan Publishing Co., Ankara, 1984, p. 80.
39 For further details see Harun Yahya’s Design in Nature, Ta Ha Publishers, January 2002.
40 Jim Robbins, “Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice,” New York Times, December 11, 2001.
41 Jim Robbins, “Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice,” New York Times, December 11, 2001.
42 John Whitfield, “Making Crops Cry For Help,” Nature, April 12, 2001, p. 736-737.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Peter Weiss, “Soaking Up Rays,” Science News, August 4, 2001.
46 Ibid.

INTELLIGENT MATERIALS

INTELLIGENT MATERIALS

Currently, many scientists are studying the structure of natural materials and using them as models in their own research, simply because these structures possess such sought-after properties as strength, lightness and elasticity. For example, the inner shell of the abalone is twice as resistant as the ceramics that even advanced technology can produce. Spider silk is five times stronger than steel, and the adhesive that mussels use to moor themselves to rocks maintains its properties even underwater. 16

Gulgun Akbaba, a member of the Turkish Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology) Magazine research and publication group, speaks of the superior characteristics of natural materials and the ways in which we can make use of them:

Traditional ceramic and glass materials have become unable to adapt to technology, which improves almost with every passing day. Scientists are [now] working to fill this gap. The architectural secrets in the structures in nature have slowly begun to be revealed… In the same way that a mussel shell can repair itself or a wounded shark can repair damage to its skin, the materials used in technology will also be able to renew themselves.

These materials which are harder, stronger, more resistant and have superior physical, mechanical, chemical and electromagnetic properties, possess lightness and the ability to withstand high temperatures required by such vehicles as rockets, space shuttles, and research satellites when leaving and entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Work on the giant supersonic passenger carriers planned for intercontinental travel also requires light, heat-resistant materials. In medicine, the production of artificial bone requires materials that combine spongy appearance with hard structure, and tissue as close as possible to that found in nature. 17

To produce ceramic, used for a wide range of purposes from construction to electrical equipment, temperatures greater than 1,000-1,500 ^oC (1,830-2,730^oF) are generally needed.

Several ceramic materials exist in nature, yet such high temperatures are never used to create them. A mussel, for instance, secretes its shell in a perfect manner at only 4^oC (39^oF). This example of nature’s superior creation drew the attention of Turkish scientist Ilhan Aksay, who turned his thoughts to wondering how we might produce better, stronger, useful and functional ceramics.

Examining the internal structures of the shells of a number of sea creatures, Aksay noticed the extraordinary properties of abalone shells. Magnified 300,000 times with an electron microscope, the shell resembled a brick wall, with calcium carbonate “bricks” alternating with a protein “mortar.” Despite calcium carbonate’s essentially brittle nature, the shell was extremely strong due to its laminated structure and less brittle than man-made ceramics. Aksay found that its lamination helps keep cracks from propagating, in roughly the same way that a braided rope doesn’t fail when one single strand breaks. 18

Abalone shell consists of microscopic bricks in a layered structure that prevents any cracks in the shell from spreading.

Inspired by such models, Aksay developed some very hard, resistant ceramic-metal composites. After being tested in various US Army laboratories, a boron-carbide/aluminum composite he helped develop was used as armor plating for tanks! 19

In order to produce biomimetic materials, today’s scientists are carrying out research at the microscopic level. As one example, Professor Aksay points out that the bioceramic-type materials in bones and teeth are formed at body temperature with a combination of organic materials such as proteins, and yet possess properties much superior to those of man-made ceramics. Encouraged by Aksay’s thesis that natural materials’ superior properties stem from connections at the nanometric level (one-millionth of a millimeter), many companies aiming to produce micro-tools at these dimensions have embarked on bio-inspired materials—that is, artificial substances inspired by biological ones. 20

All too many industrial products and byproducts, produced under conditions of high pressures and temperatures, contain harmful chemicals. Yet nature produces similar substances under what might be described as “life-friendly” conditions—in water-based solutions, for example, and at room temperature. This represents a distinct advantage for consumers and scientists alike. 21

Producers of synthetic diamonds, designers of metal alloys, polymer scientists, fiber optic experts, producers of fine ceramic and developers of semi-conductors all find applying biomimetic methods to be the most practical. Natural materials, which can respond to all their needs, also display enormous variety. Therefore, research experts in various fields—from bullet-proof vests to jet engines—imitate the originals found in nature, replicating their superior properties by artificial means.

Coral rivals the mussel shell’s mother-of-pearl in terms of solidity. Using the calcium salts from seawater, coral forms a hard structure capable of slicing through even steel ships’ hulls.

Man-made materials eventually crack and shatter. This requires replacement or repairs, carried out with adhesives, for instance. But some materials in nature, such as the mussel’s shell, can be repaired by the original organisms. Recently, in imitation, scientists have begun development of substances such as polymers and polycyclates, which can renew themselves. 22 In the search to develop strong, self-renewing bio-inspired materials, one natural substance taken as a model is rhinoceros horn. In the 21st century, such research will form the basis of material science studies.

The U.S. Army subjected the substance inspired by the abalone to various tests and later used it as armor on tanks.

A great many substances in nature possess features that can be used as models for modern inventions. On a gram-for-gram basis, for example, bone is much stronger than iron.

Composites

Most of the materials in nature consist of composites. Composites are solid materials that result when two or more substances are combined to form a new substance possessing properties that are superior to those of the original ingredients. 23 

The artificial composite known as fiberglass, for instance, is used in boat hulls, fishing rods, and sports-equipment materials such as bows and arrows. Fiberglass is created by mixing fine glass fibers with a jelly-like plastic called polymer. As the polymer hardens, the composite substance that emerges is light, strong and flexible. Altering the fibers or plastic substance used in the mixture also changes the composite’s properties. 24

Thanks to their superior properties, light composite materials are used in a wide number of purposes, from space technology to sports equipment.

Composites consisting of graphite and carbon fibers are among the ten best engineering discoveries of the last 25 years. With these, light-structured composite materials are designed for new planes, space shuttle parts, sports equipment, Formula-1 racing cars and yachts, and new discoveries are quickly being made. Yet so far, manmade composites are much more primitive and frail than those occurring naturally.

Like all the extraordinary structures, substances and systems in nature, the composites touched on briefly here are each an example of God’s extraordinary art of creation. Many verses of the Qur’an draw attention to the unique nature and perfection of this creation. God reveals the incalculable number blessings imparted to mankind as a result of His incomparable creation:

If you tried to number God’s blessings, you could never count them. God is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Qur’an, 16: 18)

Fiberglass Technology in Crocodile Skin

The fiberglass technology that began to be used in the 20th century has existed in living things since the day of their creation. A crocodile’s skin, for example, has much the same structure as fiberglass.

Until recently, scientists were baffled as to why crocodile skin was impervious to arrows, knives and sometimes, even bullets. Research came up with surprising results: The substance that gives crocodile skin its special strength is the collagen protein fibers it contains. These fibers have the property of strengthening a tissue when added to it. No doubt collagen didn’t come to possess such detailed characteristics as the result of a long, random process, as evolutionists would have us believe. Rather, it emerged perfect and complete, with all its properties, at the first moment of its creation.

Steel-Cable Technology in Muscles

Another example of natural composites are tendons. These tissues, which connect muscles to the bones, have a very firm yet pliant structure, thanks to the collagen-based fibers that make them up. Another feature of tendons is the way their fibers are woven together.

Ms. Benyus is a member of the teaching faculty at America’s Rutgers University. In her book Biomimicry, she states that the tendons in our muscles are constructed according to a very special method and goes on to say:

The tendon in your forearm is a twisted bundle of cables, like the cables used in a suspension bridge. Each individual cable is itself a twisted bundle of thinner cables. Each of these thinner cables is itself a twisted bundle of molecules, which are, of course, twisted, helical bundles of atoms. Again and again a mathematical beauty unfolds, a self-referential, fractal kaleidoscope of engineering brilliance. 25

In fact, the steel-cable technology used in present-day suspension bridges was inspired by the structure of tendons in the human body. The tendons’ incomparable design is only one of the countless proofs of God’s superior design and infinite knowledge.

Multi-Purpose Whale Blubber

Whale blubber

A layer of fat covers the bodies of dolphins and whales, serving as a natural flotation mechanism that allows whales to rise to the surface to breathe. At the same time, it protects these warm-blooded mammals from the cold waters of the ocean depths. Another property of whale blubber is that when metabolized, it provides two to three times as much energy as sugar or protein. During a whale’s nonfeeding migration of thousands of kilometers, when it is unable to find sufficient food, it obtains the needed energy from this fat in its body.

Alongside this, whale blubber is a very flexible rubberlike material. Every time it beats its tail in the water, the elastic recoil of blubber is compressed and stretched. This not only provides the whale with extra speed, but also allows a 20% energy saving on long journeys. With all these properties, whale blubber is regarded as a substance with the very widest range of functions.

Whales have had their coating of blubber for thousands of years, yet only recently has it been discovered to consist of a complex mesh of collagen fibers. Scientists are still working to fully understand the functions of this fat-composite mix, but they believe that it is yet another miracle product that would have many useful applications if produced synthetically. 26

Mother-of-Pearl’s Special Damage-Limiting Structure

The nacre structure making up the inner layers of a mollusk shell has been imitated in the development of materials for use in super-tough jet engine blades. Some 95% of the mother-of-pearl consists of chalk, yet thanks to its composite structure it is 3,000 times tougher than bulk chalk. When examined under the microscope, microscopic platelets 8 micrometers across and 0.5 micrometers thick can be seen, arranged in layers (1 micrometer = 10-6 meter). These platelets are composed of a dense and crystalline form of calcium carbonate, yet they can be joined together, thanks to a sticky silk-like protein. 27

This combination provides toughness in two ways. When mother-of-pearl is stressed by a heavy load, any cracks that form begin to spread, but change direction as they attempt to pass through the protein layers. This disperses the force imposed, thus preventing fractures. A second strengthening factor is that whenever a crack does form, the protein layers stretch out into strands across the fracture, absorbing the energy that would permit the cracks to continue. 28

The internal structure of mother-of-pearl resembles a brick wall and consists of platelets held together with organic mortar. Cracks caused by impacts change direction as they attempt to pass through this mortar, which stops them in their tracks. (Julian Vincent, “Tricks of Nature,” New Scientist, 40.)

The structure that reduces damage to mother-of-pearl has become a subject of study by a great many scientists. That the resistance in nature’s materials is based on such logical, rational methods doubtlessly indicates the presence of a superior intelligence. As this example shows, God clearly reveals evidence of His existence and the superior might and power of His creation by means of His infinite knowledge and wisdom. As He states in one verse:

Everything in the heavens and everything in the earth belongs to Him. God is the Rich Beyond Need, the Praiseworthy. (Qur’an, 22: 64)

The Hardness of Wood Is Hidden in Its Design

In contrast to the substances in other living things, vegetable composites consist more of cellulose fibers than collagen. Wood’s hard, resistant structure derives from producing this cellulose—a hard material that is not soluble in water. This property of cellulose makes wood so versatile in construction. Thanks to cellulose, timber structures keep standing for hundreds of years. Described as tension-bearing and matchless, cellulose is used much more extensively than other building materials in buildings, bridges, furniture and any number of items. 

Because wood absorbs the energy from low-velocity impacts, it’s highly effective at restricting damage to one specific location. In particular, damage is reduced the most when the impact occurs at right angles to the direction of the grain. Diagnostic research has shown that different types of wood exhibit different levels of resistance. One of the factors is density, since denser woods absorb more energy during impact. The number of vessels in the wood, their size and distribution, are also important factors in reducing impact deformation. 29

The Second World War's Mosquito aircraft, which so far have shown the greatest tolerance to damage, were made by gluing dense plywood layers between lighter strips of balsa wood. The hardness of wood makes it a most reliable material. When it does break, the cracking takes place so slowly that one can watch it happen with the naked eye, thus giving time to take precautions. 30

Above left: Wood consists of tube-like fibers which give wood its resistant properties. Above right:Wood’s raw material, known as cellulose, possesses a complicated chemical structure. If the chemical bonds or atoms comprising cellulose were different, then wood wouldn’t be so strong and flexible.

Left: A structure modeled on wood for the making of bullet-proof clothing. If wood had a different structure, it could not possess such resilient hardness. 1. Carefully placed fibers to imitate the spiral winding of the tube walls in wood. 2. Resin reinforced with glass fibers. 3. Corrugated layer between flat plates. 4. Layers arranged to imitate the tube structure of wood.

These materials, modeled on the structure of wood, are believed to be sufficiently strong to be used in bullet-proof vests. (Julian Vincent, “Tricks of Nature,” New Scientist, 40.)

Wood consists of parallel columns of long, hollow cells placed end to end, and surrounded by spirals of cellulose fibers. Moreover, these cells are enclosed in a complex polymer structure made of resin. Wound in a spiral, these layers form 80% of the total thickness of the cell wall and, together, bear the main weight. When a wood cell collapses in on itself, it absorbs the energy of impact by breaking away from the surrounding cells. Even if the crack runs between the fibers, still the wood is not deformed. Broken wood is nevertheless strong enough to support a significant load.

Material made by imitating wood’s design is 50 times more durable than other synthetic materials in use today. 31 Wood is currently imitated in materials being developed for protection against high-velocity particles, such as shrapnel from bombs or bullets.

As these few examples show, natural substances possess a most intelligent design. The structures and resistance of mother-of-pearl and wood are no coincidence. There is evident, conscious design in these materials. Every detail of their flawless design—from the fineness of the layers to their density and the number of vessels—has been carefully planned and created to bring about resistance. In one verse, God reveals that He has created everything around us:

What is in the heavens and in the earth belongs to God. God encompasses all things. (Qur’an, 4: 126)

Spider Silk Is Stronger Than Steel

A great many insects—moths and butterflies, for example—produce silk, although there are considerable differences between these substances and spider silk.

According to scientists, spider thread is one of the strongest materials known. If we set down all of a spider web’s characteristics, the resulting list will be a very long one. Yet even just a few examples of the properties of spider silk are enough to make the point: 32

• The silk thread spun by spiders, measuring just one-thousandth of a millimeter across, is five times stronger than steel of the same thickness.
• It can stretch up to four times its own length.
• It is also so light that enough thread to stretch clear around the planet would weigh only 320 grams.

These individual characteristics may be found in various other materials, but it is a most exceptional situation for them all to come together at once. It’s not easy to find a material that’s both strong and elastic. Strong steel cable, for instance, is not as elastic as rubber and can deform over time. And while rubber cables don’t easily deform, they aren’t strong enough to bear heavy loads.

How can the thread spun by such a tiny creature have properties vastly superior to rubber and steel, product of centuries of accumulated human knowledge?

Spider silk, possessing an exceedingly complex structure, is but one example of God’s incomparable art and infinite wisdom.

A detailed view of the spigots.

Spider silk’s superiority is hidden in its chemical structure. Its raw material is a protein called keratin, which consists of helical chains of amino acids cross-linked to one another. Keratin is the building block for such widely different natural substances as hair, nails, feathers and skin. In all the substances it comprises, its protective property is especially important. Furthermore, that keratin consists of amino acids bound by loose hydrogen links makes it very elastic, as described in the American magazine Science News: “On the human scale, a web resembling a fishing net could catch a passenger plane.” 33

To catch their prey, spiders construct exceedingly high-quality webs that stop a fly moving through the air by absorbing its energy. The taut cable used on aircraft carriers to halt jets when they land resembles the system that spiders employ. Operating in exactly the same way as the spider’s web, these cables halt a jet weighing several tons, moving at 250 kmph, by absorbing its kinetic energy.

On the underside of the tip of the spider's abdomen are three pairs of spinnerets. Each of these spinnerets is studded with many hairlike tubes called spigots. The spigots lead to silk glands inside the abdomen, each of which produces a different type of silk. As a result of the harmony between them, a variety of silk threads are produced. Inside the spider’s body, pumps, valves and pressure systems with exceptionally developed properties are employed during the production of the raw silk, which is then drawn out through the spigots. 34

Most importantly, the spider can alter the pressure in the spigots at will, which also changes the structure of molecules making up the liquid keratin. The valves’ control mechanism, the diameter, resistance and elasticity of the thread can all be altered, thus making the thread assume desired characteristics without altering its chemical structure. If deeper changes in the silk are desired, then another gland must be brought into operation. And finally, thanks to the perfect use of its back legs, the spider can put the thread on the desired track.

Once the spider’s chemical miracle can be replicated fully, then a great many useful materials can be produced: safety belts with the requisite elasticity, very strong surgical sutures that leave no scars, and bulletproof fabrics. Moreover, no harmful or poisonous substances need to be used in their production.

Spiders’ silk possesses the most extraordinary properties. On account of its high resistance to tension, ten times more energy is required to break spider silk than other, similar biological materials. 35

As a result, much more energy needs to be expended in order to break a piece of spider silk of the same size as a nylon thread. One main reason why spiders are able to produce such strong silk is that they manage to add assisting compounds with a regular structure by controlling the crystallization and folding of the basic protein compounds. Since the weaving material consists of liquid crystal, spiders expend a minimum of energy while doing this.

This example alone is enough to demonstrate the great wisdom of God, the Creator all things in nature: Spiders produce a thread five times stronger than steel. Kevlar, the product of our most advanced technology, is made at high temperatures, using petroleum-derived materials and sulfuric acid. The energy this process requires is very high, and its byproducts are exceedingly toxic. Yet from the point of view of strength, Kevlar is much weaker than spider silk. (“Biomimicry,” Your Planet Earth; http://www.yourplanetearth.org/terms/ details.php3?term=Biomimicry)

The thread produced by spiders is much stronger than the known natural or synthetic fibers. But the thread they produce cannot be collected and used directly, as can the silks of many other insects. For that reason, the only current alternative is artificial production.

Researchers are engaged in wide-ranging studies on how spiders produce their silk. Dr. Fritz Vollrath, a zoologist at the university of Aarhus in Denmark, studied the garden spider Araneus diadematus and succeeded in uncovering a large part of the process. He found that spiders harden their silk by acidifying it. In particular, he examined the duct through which the silk passes before exiting the spider's body. Before entering the duct, the silk consists of liquid proteins. In the duct, specialized cells apparently draw water away from the silk proteins. Hydrogen atoms taken from the water are pumped into another part of the duct, creating an acid bath. As the silk proteins make contact with the acid, they fold and form bridges with one another, hardening the silk, which is "stronger and more elastic than Kevlar [. . .] the strongest man-made fiber," as Vollrath puts it. 36

Kevlar, a reinforcing material used in bulletproof vests and tires, and made through advanced technology, is the strongest manmade synthetic. Yet spider thread possesses properties that are far superior to Kevlar. As well as its being very strong, spider silk can also be re-processed and re-used by the spider who spun it.

If scientists manage to replicate the internal processes taking place inside the spider—if protein folding can be made flawless and the weaving material's genetic information added, then it will be possible to industrially produce silk-based threads with a great many special properties. It is therefore thought that if the spider thread weaving process can be understood, the level of success in the manufacture of man-made materials will be improved.

This thread, which scientists are only now joining forces to investigate, has been produced flawlessly by spiders for at least 380 million years. 37 This, no doubt, is one of the proofs of God’s perfect creation. Neither is there any doubt that all of these extraordinary phenomena are under His control, taking place by His will. As one verse states, “There is no creature He does not hold by the forelock” (Qur’an, 11: 56).

The Mechanism for Producing Spider Thread Is Superior to Any Textile Machine

Spiders produce silks with different characteristics for different purposes. Diatematus, for instance, can use its silk glands to produce seven different types of silk—similar to production techniques employed in modern textile machines. Yet those machines’ enormous size can’t be compared with the spider’s few cubic millimeters silk-producing organ. Another superior feature of its silk is the way that the spider can recycle it, able to produce new thread by consuming its damaged web.

16 David Perlman, “Business and Nature in Productive, Efficient Harmony,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 30, 1997, p. 5; http://www.biomimicry.org/reviews_text.html
17 Ilhan Aksay, “Malzeme Biliminin Onderlerinden” (A leading figure in material science), Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology Magazine), TUBITAK Publishings, February 2002, p. 92.
18 Billy Goodman, “Mimicking Nature,” Princeton Weekly, Feature-January 28, 1998; http://www.princeton.edu/~cml/html/publicity/PAW19980128/0128feat.htm
19 Ilhan Aksay, “Malzeme Biliminin Onderlerinden” (A leading figure in material science), Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology Magazine), TUBITAK Publishings, February 2002, p. 93.
20 Ibid.
21 Julian Vincent, “Tricks of Nature,” New Scientist, August 17, 1996, vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 38.
22 Ilhan Aksay, “Malzeme Biliminin Onderlerinden” (A leading figure in material science) Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology Magazine), TUBITAK Publishings, February 2002, p. 93.
23 “Learning From Designs in Nature,” Life A product of Design; http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/1/22/article_02.htm
24 Ibid.
25 Benyus, Biomimicry, pp. 99-100.
26 “Learning From Designs in Nature,” Life A product of Design; http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/1/22/article_02.htm
27 Julian Vincent, “Tricks of Nature,” New Scientist, August 17, 1996, vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 38.
28 Ibid., p. 39.
29 http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/cb/97hepworth.html
30 Julian Vincent, “Tricks of Nature,” New Scientist, August 17, 1996, vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 39
31 Ibid., p. 40.
32 J. M. Gosline, M. E. DeMont & M. W. Denny, "The Structure and Properties of Spider Silk," Endeavour, Volume 10, Issue 1, 1986, p. 42.
33 “Learning From Designs in Nature”, Life A product of Design; http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/1/22/article_02.htm
34 "Spider (arthropod)," Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2005
35 J. M. Gosline, M. W. Denny & M. E. DeMont, “Spider silk as rubber,” Nature, vol. 309, no. 5968, pp. 551-552; http://iago.stfx.ca/people/edemont/abstracts/spider.html
36 “How Spiders Make Their Silk”, Discover, vol. 19, no. 10, October 1998.
37 Shear, W.A., J. M. Palmer, “A Devonian Spinneret: Early Evidence of Spiders and Silk Use,” Science, vol. 246, pp. 479-481; http://faculty.washington.edu/yagerp/silkprojecthome.html 

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Imagine you’ve just bought an immensely detailed model airplane kit. How do you set about putting all the hundreds of tiny parts together? First, no doubt, you’ll examine the illustrations on the box. Then, following the instructions inside shortens the whole process of putting a model together in the best way possible, making no mistakes.

Even lacking any assembly instructions, you can still manage the task if you already possess a similar model airplane.  The first plane’s design can serve as an important guide in assembling any later one. In the exact same way, using a flawless design in nature as a model provides shortcuts to designing technological equipment with the same functions in the most perfect possible manner. Aware of this, most scientists and research and development (R&D) experts study the examples of living things before embarking on any new designs, and imitate the systems and designs that already exist. In other words, they examine the designs God has created in nature and, then inspired, go on to develop new technologies.

This approach has given birth to a new branch of science: biomimetics, which means the imitation of living things in nature. This new study is being spoken of more and more often in technological circles and is opening up important new horizons for mankind.

As biomimetics emerges, imitating the structures of living systems, it presents a major setback for those scientists who still support the theory of evolution. From an evolutionist’s point of view, it’s entirely unacceptable for men—whom they regard as the highest rung on the evolutionary ladder—to try to draw inspiration from (much less imitate) other living things which, allegedly, are so much more primitive than they are.

If more advanced living things take the designs of “primitive” ones as models, that means that we’ll be basing a large part of our future technology on the structure of those so-called lesser organisms. That, in turn, is a fundamental violation of the theory of evolution, whose logic maintains that living things too primitive to adapt to their environments soon became extinct, while the remaining “higher” ones evolved and succeeded.

Biomimetics, while placing the proponents of evolution in a vicious circle, is expanding by the day and coming to dominate scientific thought. In the light of this, yet another new scientific branch has emerged: biomimicry, or the science of imitating the behavior of living creatures.

This book considers the advances that biomimetics and biomimicry have made by taking nature as their model. It examines the flawless but hitherto, little noted systems that have existed ever since living things were first created. It also describes how nature’s many varied and highly efficient mechanisms, which baffle the proponents of evolution, are all products of our Lord’s unique creation.

What Is Biomimetics?

Janine M. Benyus and her book Biomimicry

Biomimetics and biomimicry are both aimed at solving problems by first examining, and then imitating or drawing inspiration from models in nature.

Biomimetics is the term used to describe the substances, equipment, mechanisms and systems by which humans imitate natural systems and designs, especially in the fields of defense, nanotechnology 1, robot technology, and artificial intelligence (also known as AI, for short).

The concept of biomimicry, first put forth by Janine M. Benyus, a writer and scientific observer from Montana, was later taken up and begun to be used by a great many others. One of their accounts describes her work and the whole development of biomimicry:

A naturalist and author of several field guides to wildlife, she visited the laboratories of a number of scientific researchers who are taking a more modest approach to unraveling nature’s secrets. The theme of “biomimicry” is that we have much to learn from the natural world, as model, measure, and mentor. What these researchers have in common is a reverence for natural designs, and the inspiration to use them to solve human problems. 2

David Oakey is a product strategist for Interface Inc., one of the firms making use of nature to improve product quality and productivity. On the subject of biomimicry, he has this to say:

Nature is my mentor for business and design, a model for the way of life. Nature's system has worked for millions of years... Biomimicry is a way of learning from nature. 3

This rapidly expanding concept found favor with scientists, who were able to accelerate their own research by drawing for inspiration on nature’s incomparably flawless models. Scientific researchers working on economic systems and raw materials—in the industrial field in particular—have now joined forces to determine how best to imitate nature.

Designs in nature ensure the greatest productivity for the least amount of materials and energy. They’re able to repair themselves, are environmentally friendly and wholly recyclable. They operate silently, are pleasing in aesthetic appearance, and offer long lives and durability. All these good qualities are being taken as models to emulate. As the journal High Country News wrote, “By using natural systems as models, we can create technologies that are more sustainable than those in use today.” 4

Janine M. Benyus, author of the book Biomimicry, came to believe in the need for imitating nature by considering its perfections. Following are some of the examples she cites, which led her to defend such an approach:

• Hummingbirds' ability to cross the Gulf of Mexico on less than 3 grams of fuel,
• How dragonflies are more maneuverable than even the best helicopters,
• The heating and air conditioning systems in termite mounds—in terms of equipment and energy consumption, far superior to those constructed by man,
• Bats’ high-frequency transmitter, far more efficient and sensitive than radar systems created by human beings,
• How light-emitting algae combine different chemical substances to give off light without heat,
• How arctic fish and temperate-zone frogs return to life after being frozen, with the ice doing their organs no harm,
• How anole lizards and chameleons change their colors—and how octopi and cuttlefish change both their colors and patterns in a moment—to blend in with their surroundings,
• Bees’, turtles’ and birds’ ability to navigate without maps,
• Whales and penguins diving underwater for long periods without scuba gear,
• How the DNA helix stores information in all living things,
• How, through photosynthesis, leaves perform an astounding chemical reaction to create 300 billion tons of sugar every year.

These are just a few examples of the natural mechanisms and designs that create great excitement, and have the potential to enrich a great many areas of technology. As our information accumulates and technological possibilities increase, their potential becomes ever clearer.

In the 19th century, for example, nature was imitated only for its aesthetic values. Painters and architects of the time, influenced by the beauties of the natural world, duplicated these structures’ external appearance in their own creations. But the deeper one looks into the fine detail, the more astonishing nature’s immaculate order becomes. Gradually, as the extraordinary nature of natural designs and the benefits that their imitation would bring to mankind, natural mechanisms began to be studied more closely—and finally, at the molecular level.

The emerging materials, structures and machines being developed through biomimetics can be used in new solar cells, advanced robots and future spacecraft. From that perspective, nature’s designs are opening incredibly broad horizons.

How Will Biomimetics Change Our Lives?

Our Lord has given us the designs in nature as great blessings. Imitating them, taking them as models will direct mankind toward what is right and true. For some reason, only recently has the scientific community understood that nature’s designs are an enormous resource and that these need to be made use of in daily life.

A great many authoritative scientific publications accept that natural structures represent a huge resource for showing mankind the way toward superior designs. Nature magazine expresses it in these terms:

Yet fundamental research on the character of nature’s mechanisms, from the elephant to the protein, is sure to enrich the pool from which designers and engineers can draw ideas. The scope for deepening this pool is still tremendous. 5

The correct use of this resource will certainly lead to a process of rapid developments in technology. Biomimetics expert Janine M. Benyus has stated that imitating nature will let us advance in a great many fields, such as food and energy production, information storage, and health. As examples, she cites mechanisms inspired by leaves, which work on solar energy; the production of computers that transmit signals the way cells do; and ceramics made to resist breakage by imitating mother-of-pearl. 6

Therefore, it’s evident that the Biomimetic Revolution will influence mankind profoundly and let us live in ever greater ease and comfort.

One by one, today’s developing technologies are discovering the miracles of creation; and biomimetics is only one of the fields that’s putting the extraordinary designs of living things to use as models in the service of mankind. A few of the scientific papers dealing with these matters include:

• "Learning from Designs in Nature" 7
• "Projects at the Centre for Biomimetics" 8
• "Science Is Imitating Nature" 9
• "Life’s Lessons in Design" 10
• "Biomimicry: Secrets Hiding in Plain Sight" 11
• "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature" 12
• "Biomimicry: Genius that Surrounds Us" 13
• "Biomimetics: Creating Materials From Nature’s Blueprints" 14
• "Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice" 15

Perusing articles like these demonstrates how the results of this scientific research are, one by one, revealing proofs of the existence of God.

Intelligent Design, in other words Creation

In order to create, God has no need to design

It’s important that the word “design” be properly understood. That God has created a flawless design does not mean that He first made a plan and then followed it. God, the Lord of the Earth and the heavens, needs no “designs” in order to create. God is exalted above all such deficiencies. His planning and creation take place at the same instant.

Whenever God wills a thing to come about, it is enough for Him just to say, "Be!"

As verses of the Qur’an tell us:

His command when He desires a thing is just to say to it, “Be!” and it is. (Qur'an, 36: 82)

[God is] the Originator of the heavens and Earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, “Be!” and it is. (Qur'an, 2: 117)

1 Nanotechnology means building something by manipulating the placement of pieces that vary in size from 0.1 to 100 nanometers (nm)—roughly the range of size between atoms and molecules.
2 Janine M. Benyus, Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired By Nature, William Morrow and Company Inc., New York, 1998;  http://www.biomimicry.org/reviews_text.html
3 “Biomimicry,” Buckminster Fuller Institute; http://www.bfi.org/Trimtab/spring01/biomimicry.htm
4 Michelle Nijhuis, High Country News, July 06, 1998, vol. 30, no. 13; http://www.biomimicry.org/reviews_text.html
5 Philip Ball, “Life’s lessons in design,” Nature, January 18, 2001.
6 A Conversation with Janine Benyus, “Biomimicry Explained;” http://www.biomimicry.org/faq.html
7 http://www.watchtower.org/library/g /2000/1/22/article_02.htm
8 http://www.rdg.ac.uk/biomimetics/ projects.htm
9 Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology Magazine), TUBITAK Publishings, August 1994, p. 43.
10 Philip Ball, “Life’s lessons in design”, Nature 409, 413-416 (2001).
11 “Biomimicry: Secrets Hiding in Plain Sight,” NBL 6.22, November 17, 1997; http://www.natlogic.com/resorces/nbl/v06/n22.html
12 Janine M. Benyus, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, William Morrow and Company Inc., New York, 1998; http://www.biomimicry.org/reviews_text.html
13 Ed Hunt, “Biomimicry: Genius that Surrounds Us,” Tidepool Editor; http://www.biomimicry.org/reviews_text.html
14 Robin Eisner, “Biomimetics: Creating Materials From Nature’s Blueprints,” The Scientist, July 08, 1991; http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1991/july/research_910708.html
15 Jim Robbins, “Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice,” New York Times, December 11, 2001.

Chapter 5 In Order Not To Feel Regret In The Hereafter

He (The Prophet) said, 'My Lord, help me because of their calling me a liar!'
He (Allah) said, 'In a short while they will be full of regret.'

(Surat al-Muminun: 39-40)

Chapter 5

In Order Not To Feel Regret In The Hereafter

Why should Allah punish you if you are thankful and have faith? Allah is All-Thankful, All-Knowing. (Surat an-Nisa:147)

People are created with many weaknesses and imperfections. Throughout our lives, we forget many things and make countless mistakes. However through repentance, which Allah grants us as a great favor, it is always possible in this world to correct our mistakes. Indeed, the world is created just for this purpose: we are trained, put to test, and purified of our mistakes in this world. It is likely that we may deeply regret our mistakes or the way we have led our lives. However, it is always possible to make up for this regret. After having lived through this regret, we can ask for repentance and hope for Allah's forgiveness.

In the Qur'an, Allah gives the glad tidings that He will forgive any sin provided one repents sincerely. Allah knows our inner thoughts and every word we keep to ourselves. He knows whether we are true to Him or not. Allah, in the Qur'an, describes His closeness to his servants:

Your Lord knows best what is in your selves. If you are righteous, He is Ever-Forgiving to the remorseful. (Surat al-Isra: 25)

Yet, another important fact surfaces here; after death, it is not possible to make up for the mistakes and sins committed in this world unless Allah wills otherwise. So not a single moment do we have to lose. Minutes pass by in a blink of the eye and with every moment passing, we draw even closer to death. Furthermore, we can never foresee when death will confront us. Its date, hour and minute can never be known. We all will certainly die one day and will give an account of our deeds in the Presence of Allah.

For this reason, man must always bear in mind that he may soon die. If he is not to regret in the Hereafter, he must reconsider his life.

Allah is our All-Mighty Creator and what befalls every individual in the face of His Might is to properly and fully fulfill his obligations as a servant during the time granted to him in this world. A believer reveals himself through the care he takes over his religious observances; he enthusiastically performs the prayer 5 times a day, ablutions and fasting commanded by Allah throughout the course of his life.

Narrated Ibn 'Umar (ra):

The Prophet (saas) said, "The religion of Islam is based on five fundamental principles: attesting that there exists no deity but Allah, that Muhammad (saas) is His servant and His Messenger, praying, fasting and pilgrimage." (Bukhari and Muslim)

If it were the time to meet the angels of death right now, would a person who failed to do his duty as a servant of Allah in the life of this world be able to give an account of all the years you have spent in this world?

What have you done so far to earn the consent of Allah?

Have you been meticulous enough in fulfilling Allah's commands?

A person might not have an affirmative answer to any of these questions. But if he repents and sincerely makes an absolute commitment to live to earn the good pleasure of Allah, then he can hope for Allah's forgiveness. The Messenger of Allah (saas) frequently sought forgiveness from Allah:

By Allah, I seek the pardon of Allah and return penitently to Him every day more than seventy times. (Bukhari)

We must take refuge in Allah, Who is al-Ghaffar (The Forgiver, He Who is All-Forgiving), al-Halim (Forbearing One, He Who is clement), and al-Tawwab (The Acceptor of repentance). Allah will absolutely give the rewards of those who persevere and often turn to Him. He will certainly forgive His servants who have faith and reward their good deeds according to the best of what they did. In the Qur'an, Allah states this great glad tiding as follows:

What is with you runs out but what is with Allah goes on forever. Those who were steadfast will be recompensed according to the best of what they did. Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a believer, We will give them a good life and We will recompense them according to the best of what they did. (Surat an-Nahl: 96-97)

Allah's Messenger (saas) also called on believers to be steadfast in doing good deeds and gave them the good news that they will be rewarded by Allah if they do so:

The Prophet (saas) said,"Carry on doing (good deeds), for everybody will find it easy to do (what will lead him to his destined place)." Then he recited "As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allah, and believes in the best reward from Allah (i.e. Allah will compensate him for what he will spend in Allah's way). So, We will make smooth for him the path of ease. But he who is a greedy miser...for him, the path for evil." (Bukhari)

Never forget that at any time any one of us might be caught by death and, though being full of regret, might not have again the opportunity to correct the wrongs we committed in the worldly life. For this reason, we should lose no time in asking for repentance from Allah and living by His commands and the sunnah of the Prophet (saas). This is the only way to be a servant upon whom Allah bestows His mercy and love. This is again the only way to attain Paradise, the eternal abode Allah prepares for His true believers.

Chapter 4 The Regret Felt In Hell

He (The Prophet) said, 'My Lord, help me because of their calling me a liar!'
He (Allah) said, 'In a short while they will be full of regret.'

(Surat al-Muminun: 39-40)

Chapter 4

The Regret Felt In Hell

When it sees them coming from a long way off, they will hear it seething and rasping. (Surat al-Furqan: 12)

The Regret Unbelievers Feel When They See Hell

On the Day of Judgment, once their accounts are taken, people will be gathered and will be driven to Hell in "divisions." Amongst this crowd will be everyone who denied the religion and existence of Allah throughout history and those who were arrogant and turned away from the signs of Allah. There will be also those who enjoyed wealth and fame. To their disappointment, however, those things they attached importance to in the world will not save them from eternal punishment. Allah informs us in the Qur'an that all unbelievers will be disgracefully dragged into Hell. Before Hell's gates, the keepers will make them confess their crimes for a last time and take them in. Upon this, the gates will be closed behind them for all eternity. Allah describes the way unbelievers are driven to Hell in the Qur'an as follows:

Those who are unbelievers will be driven to Hell in companies and when they arrive there and its gates are opened its custodians will say to them, "Did Messengers from yourselves not come to you, reciting your Lord's Signs to you and warning you of the meeting on this Day of yours?" They will say, "Indeed they did," but the decree of punishment is justly carried out against the unbelievers. They will be told, "Enter the gates of Hell and stay there timelessly, for ever. How evil is the abode of the arrogant!" (Surat az-Zumar: 71-72)

"That is because you exulted on the earth, without any right to do so; and strutted about. Enter the gates of Hell, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. How evil is the abode of the arrogant!" (Surah Ghafir: 75-76)

Not a single person among this crowd can come out and say that he was not warned against this day. That is because Allah, Who is the Just, had sent messengers to every individual to remind him about His existence, the Day of Judgment, Paradise and Hell. Therefore, unbelievers will acknowledge that they deserved the torment in Hell.

They remained arrogant although they were warned and knowingly avoided to serve Allah, the One Who created them. Allah informs man that such people will be humiliated in Hell in the Qur'an:

Your Lord says, "Call on Me and I will answer you. Those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell abject." (Surah Ghafir: 60)

Allah's Messenger (saas) emphasized the same point in a hadith:

...Shall I inform you about the people of the Fire? They comprise every cruel, violent, proud and conceited person. (Bukhari)

Considering themselves to be all-powerful in the world, some of these people insolently rebelled against our Lord. Power, they assumed, would provide deliverance. When they were reminded about the attribute of Allah, the al-Qahhar (The Subduer), the existence of Hell and Paradise, and were offered guidance to the way favored by Allah, they retorted:

"Why does Allah not punish us for what we say?" Hell will be enough for them! They will roast in it. What an evil destination! (Surat al-Mujadala: 8)

In response to their rebellion, they will be taken in through Hell's gates and never again allowed out unless Allah wills otherwise. The moment they see the fire, they will feel an unbearable regret for their wrongs. Allah reveals in the Qur'an that this is the moment they explicitly realize there is no way out of Hell:

The evildoers will see the Fire and realize they are going to fall into it and find no way of escaping from it. (Surat al-Kahf: 53)

Comprehension will be very sharp in Hell; everything unbelievers feigned ignorance about in the world will appear to be very clear then. They will realize that they spent all their lives on vain purposes and they will ultimately understand that, in exchange for minor and temporary benefits, they must now remain in torment in the afterlife. The few decades they had in the world seemed a long period of time to them and meanwhile they never thought about the Hereafter. Rather than a perfect and blissful life where one is not vulnerable to physical weaknesses such as hunger and exhaustion, they preferred this world where one finds himself incurably dissatisfied. No sooner they enter by Hell gates than they comprehend that they have no escape. Thus, as a last recourse to avoid torment, they seek salvation by offering a ransom: a ransom of everything they possess in this world. These vain efforts are described as follows:

...But as for those who do not respond to Him, even if they owned everything on the earth and the same again with it, they would offer it as a ransom. They will receive an evil Reckoning. Their shelter will be Hell. What an evil resting-place! (Surat ar-Rad: 18)

However, these last efforts displayed upon facing the fact of entering Hell will be in vain. Allah informs us that these attempts bring no benefit:

So today no ransom will be accepted from you or from those who were unbelievers. Your refuge is the Fire. It is your master. What an evil destination! (Surat al-Hadid: 15)

There is certainly an important reason why these attempts bring no results. Allah warned them against Hell when they were still in the world. Everything was made clear to them; that no man will be able to help another and that no one will be able to offer any ransom. They were further reminded that no ransom will be accepted. A verse Allah revealed to warn people about this fact is as follows:

Have fear of a Day when no self will be able to compensate for another in any way. No intercession will be accepted from it, no ransom taken from it, and they will not be helped. (Surat al-Baqara: 48)

Yet, in spite of all the warnings, they insisted on their denial and they knowingly prepared such an end for themselves. On that day, they will acknowledge one important fact: that their own deeds earned them Hell.

This regret-unless Allah wills otherwise-will be a great torment they will find no salvation from eternally. That is because they encountered one important fact: had they devoted themselves to earning the favor of Allah instead of striving for vain goals, they would not be at the entrance to Hell but to Paradise. Due to their failure to comply with the right way, they suffer terrible loss.

As Allah states in the twentieth verse of Surat al-Balad, "above them is a sealed vault of Fire." Once they enter by the gates of Hell, they will be locked inside. Behind these gates exists the torment of Hellfire with no certain end, which they will suffer for as long as Allah wills. For the unbelievers, there is no possibility to escape from this torment. Allah calls this fire "the Shatterer." These verses in Surat al-Humaza read:

And what will convey to you what the Shatterer is? The kindled Fire of Allah reaching right into the heart. It is sealed in above them in towering columns. (Surat al-Humaza: 5-9)

The Torment Unbelievers Confront in Hell

Before proceeding with the regret unbelievers will face in the Hereafter, it will be useful to describe the torment in Hell. Without being aware of the forms of torment in Hell, one might fail to comprehend the dimensions of the regret there.

As mentioned earlier, the regret of unbelievers begins at the very moment they see Hell and then continues for all eternity. The conversations among these people upon their arrival in Hell are as follows:

Those who reject their Lord will have the punishment of Hell. What an evil destination! When they are flung into it they will hear it gasping harshly as it seethes. It all but bursts with rage. Each time a group is flung into it its custodians will question them: "Did no warner come to you?" They will say, "Yes indeed, a warner did come to us but we denied him and said, "Allah has sent nothing down. You are just greatly misguided." They will say, "If only we had really listened and used our intellect, we would not have been Companions of the Blaze." Then they will acknowledge their wrong actions. Away with the Companions of the Blaze! (Surat al-Mulk: 6-11)

As Allah stated in the verses, when they are flung into Hell, they hear a terrible noise. Allah describes this noise in the seventh verse of the Surat al-Mulk as "gasping harshly as it seethes." This terrible sound inflicts a dreadful distress and fear on unbelievers. In another verse, Allah describes Hellfire as a fire which almost bursts with rage (Surat al-Mulk: 8). The rejecters witnessing this horrible event will feel desperate because they will understand the punishment they will face. And as our Lord stated above, they will talk about their regret for their failure to have had a grasp of all while they were still in the world.

They will be in such relentless distress because they will understand that the penalty they will confront will be extremely horrible and painful. In the verses, it is stated that Hell is the worst place to stay in.

...What an evil destination! (Surah Al 'Imran: 162)

...What an evil refuge! (Surat an-Nisa: 115)

Their shelter will be the Fire. How evil is the abode of the wrongdoers! (Surah Al 'Imran: 151)

Hell, where they will roast. What an evil place to stay! (Surah Ibrahim: 29)

Hell is depicted in a similar way in the hadiths of the Prophet (saas):

Among the people of Hell are there those who will be immersed in fire to their ankles, some to their knees, some to their waists, and some to their throats. (Muslim)

The dwellers of Hell will be thrown down into this evil refuge in crowds. In a verse Allah states this as "They will be bundled into it head first, they and the misled" (Surat ash-Shu'ara: 94) From the verse, it is understood that all unbelievers including those who were arrogant, had wealth and were held in esteem, will be thrown into the fire as worthless masses. In reply to their arrogance in the world on that day, they will be humiliated and despised.

In Hell, they will never be held in esteem and never will they receive mercy. As the firewood of Hell, they will live in pain and grief for all eternity. Allah reveals this fact in the verses as follows:

You and what you worship besides Allah are fuel for Hell. You will go down into it. (Surat al-Anbiya': 98)

...They are fuel for the Fire. (Surah Al 'Imran: 10)

Allah informs us in the Qur'an of various forms of punishment in Hell. Most of the people will dwell there, as stated in the verse, "for ages." In other words, they will be tormented for as long as Allah wills. We can describe some of these punishments as follows:

In the thirteenth verse of Surat al-Furqan, Allah relates that unbelievers will be cast "into a narrow place in Hell shackled together in chains." Being left closed in a narrow space even for a few minutes makes one tense. Even the thought of being surrounded by four walls is often an unbearable thought. The torment of Hell, however, is incomparable to the one of the world. Confined in that narrow space, they will also be subjected to fire. Moreover, shackled together in chains, they will even not be able to move, let alone escaping from the fire. Even imagining such a scene is painful.

In another verse, Allah informs that unbelievers will remain in "shades of pitch-black smoke" (Surat al-Waqia: 43). In general, the word "shade" reminds one coolness. However, this is not the case with Hell. In Hell, Allah informs us that this shade is neither cool nor refreshing.

Another form of punishment in Hell is the impossibility of death. Death is way of deliverance. For this reason, Allah will not allow the people of Hell to die as He maintains in the verse, "death will come to them from every side, yet they cannot die" (Surah Ibrahim: 17). They will experience every sort of assault which would, under normal conditions, result in death. Despite this, they will not die, but will instead continue to suffer more torment as long as Allah wills in their eternal afterlife.

The fact that there will be no other death in the hereafter was also stated by the Prophet Muhammad (saas):

When the inhabitants of the Garden have gone to the Garden and the inmates of the Fire have gone to the Fire, death will be called and placed between the Garden and the Fire. Afterward the following announcement will be made: "Inhabitants of the Garden! There is no more death! Inmates of the Fire! There is no more death!" This will increase the delight of the inhabitants of the Garden and the grief of the inmates of the Fire. (Muslim)

In this world, severe burns result in death in a short while. One can hardly endure fire. Even if one does not die but is only injured, it takes a long time for the wounds to heal properly. But in Hell, the torment of fire will be incomparable to the fire we know in this world. In Hell, skins are replaced as they are burned off just to make the condemned taste more anguish. (Surat an-Nisa: 56) In brief, in Hell, one would suffer from never-ending pain caused by fire as long as Allah wills.

Allah describes another form of torment caused by fire in the thirteenth verse of Surat adh-Dhariyat where He says that the Companions of the Fire will be tormented by the Fire. It is unlikely to comprehend the pain such a state would cause. Considering the minor pain an ordinary burn gives in this world, one would discern the great pain this torment would give. While all these happen, man will also experience the following:

Then will be bound in a chain... (Surat al-Haqqa: 32)

They will be shackled and chained. (Surat al-Insan: 4)

They will be beaten with cudgels made of iron. (Surat al-Hajj: 21)

Their foreheads, sides and backs are branded with the fire of Hell. (Surat at-Tawba: 35)

Boiling water will be poured over their heads, (Surat al-Hajj: 19)

They will have garments of fire cut out for them, and they will be wearing shirts of tar, (Surah Ibrahim: 50)

They will not find a cool, refreshing drink. On that day only boiling water (Surat al-Sad: 57) and blood and pus (Surat al-Haqqa: 36) will be available.

The only nourishment the people of Hell have, on the other hand, are the fruits of the bitter thorn and the tree of zaqqum. Allah informs how zaqqum will turn out to be a torment for unbelievers:

The Tree of az-Zaqqum is the food of the wicked, seething in the belly like molten brass, as boiling water bubbles and seethes. "Seize him and drag him bodily into the middle of the Blazing Fire. Then pour the punishment of boiling water on his head." "Taste that! You are the mighty one, the noble one! This is the very thing you used to doubt." (Surat ad-Dukhan: 43-50)

From the descriptions in the Qur'an, we know that food in Hell will have a choking effect on people. They will try to sip the drink of fester water in gulps, but to no avail; they will never manage to swallow it. Pus, which is the most disgusting thing in this world with its appearance and odor, will also be among the nourishment of the people in Hell. This will inflict great pain on the people of Hell but, out of starvation, they will have no other choice but to eat. Nevertheless, what they eat will not satisfy their hunger. They will also suffer the pain of hunger forever.

They have no food but a bitter thorny bush which neither nourishes nor satisfies. (Surat al-Ghashiyya: 6-7)

Allah gives other descriptions in the Qur'an regarding the torment in Hell:

There will be sighing for them in it (Surat al-Anbiya': 100)

...(they will be) remaining in it for countless aeons... (Surat an-Naba: 23)

...Their punishment will not be lightened. They will be granted no reprieve... (Surah Al 'Imran: 88)

They will want to get out of the Fire but they will not be able to. (Surat al-Maida: 37)

These torments will inflict indefinable suffering and regret on disbelievers. For salvation, they will plead many times and even consent to their souls being taken. Allah relates the conversations of the people in Hell in the Qur'an as follows:

They will call out, "Malik (Master), let your Lord put an end to us!" He will say, "You will stay the way you are. We brought you the truth but most of you hated the truth." (Surat az-Zukhruf: 77-78)

Turning away from the religion (deen) and failing to take heed of the warnings will be to the detriment of these people, as Allah relates in the Qur'an. Allah, in return, will not answer the calls of these people and He will keep them in their torment for as long as He wills.

These are only some of the torments which will be inflicted on those who denied Allah and the Hereafter and ignored the warnings about the existence of Hell and Paradise. In addition, there is another torment, one which will always remain with unbelievers. This is the feeling of regret, one would not be able to forget for a moment. This feeling will even more deepen with the distress caused by the fact that one would be sent to Hell, the most horrifying place one could ever see. As stated earlier, every moment unbelievers experience the suffering, they will remember that, had they complied with the right way, none of these would befall them. There is no way to avoid from this regret.

The Regret Unbelievers will Feel in Hell

Having an experience of the severity of the punishment, unbelievers will be seized by the regret of not having faith in Allah while they were still in the world. Yet this regret will not alter the situation. In the world, they were offered many opportunities, which they failed to take. Once they attain comprehension of this fact, they will lament to everyone and everything which distracted them from Allah and the Hereafter and made them indulge in worldly affairs.

In the Qur'an, the regret unbelievers feel is full of rage, as Allah states in the verse below:

They will say on the Day their faces are rolled over in the Fire, "If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!" And they will say, "Our Lord, we obeyed our masters and great men and they misguided us from the Way. Our Lord, give them double the punishment and curse them many times over!" (Surat al-Ahzab: 66-68)

So that, when he reaches Us, he says, "If only there was the distance of the two Easts between you and me!" What an evil companion! It will not benefit you today, since you did wrong, that you share equally in the punishment. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 38-39)

As the verses suggest, they hope to save themselves by blaming those who misled them from the right path. However, Allah granted a conscience to everyone so that he could be guided to the right path. Allah also endowed man a will to carry out his pertinent decisions. In this sense, man is provided with both of the two alternatives as well as the knowledge of right and wrong. This being the case, one's choice rests entirely with him. Besides, Allah knows whether one keeps faith or denial deep in his heart. Accordingly, those leading people to Hell as well as those adhering to them will be justly punished. That day, nobody will bear responsibility for the sins of another.

While these people tempted one another into committing sins, it probably occurred to them many times that they would give an account of them in the Hereafter, yet they chose to treat this matter as if it were an insignificant issue. They encouraged one another in denial of Allah, saying "I will bear responsibility for what you do." Satan, on the other hand, made tempting promises to them and misled them in the wrong way. But Allah, with the verse, "...and he will come to Us all alone." (Surah Maryam: 80), informs us that these promises will be of no help.

That day unbelievers will clearly see that they are all alone. They will understand one important fact themselves: other than Allah, man has neither a friend nor a protector. In Hell, their mentors and anybody they considered to be their friends in the world will leave them all alone. Likewise, satan, whom, forsaking Allah, they took as their protector, will be unfaithful to them and address to them in the following way:

When the affair is decided satan will say, "Allah made you a promise, a promise of truth, and I made you a promise but broke my promise. I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you responded to me. Do not, therefore, blame me but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid nor you to mine. I reject the way you associated me with Allah before." The wrongdoers will have a painful punishment. (Surah Ibrahim: 22)

Seeing the unfaithfulness of everyone they considered as friends will be another source of regret for unbelievers. Then do they clearly understand that there is no one they can take refuge in other than Allah. Yet seeing that this comprehension provides no relief for them will add to their troubles. On that day, they will quarrel with one another. Meanwhile, they confess their sins. Allah describes this situation in the verses as follows:

Arguing in it with one another, they will say, "By Allah, we were plainly misguided when We equated you with the Lord of all the worlds. It was only the evildoers who misguided us and now we have no one to intercede for us; we do not have a single loyal friend. If only we could have another chance then we would be among the believers!" (Surat ash-Shu'ara: 96-102)

As related in the verses above, in a deep regret, unbelievers wish to return to the world so that they can engage in good deeds which would bring goodness to them in the Hereafter. Yet, this is an unacceptable wish. They realize that anything-wealth, beauty, career etc-that they chased after in the world is worthless in the Hereafter. Allah describes some of their regretful expressions in the Qur'an:

But as for him who is given his Book in his left hand, he will say, "If only I had not been given my Book and had not known about my Reckoning! If only death had really been the end! My wealth has been of no use to me. My power has vanished." "Seize him and truss him up. Then roast him in the Blazing Fire. Then bind him in a chain which is seventy cubits long. He used not to have faith in Allah the Magnificent, nor did he urge the feeding of the poor. Therefore here today he has no friend." (Surat al-Haqqa: 25-35)

...and that Day Hell is produced, that Day man will remember; but how will the remembrance help him? He will say, "Oh! If only I had prepared in advance for this life of mine!" (Surat al-Fajr: 23-24)

In addition, witnessing the great joy and happiness of the Companions of the Garden deepens the regret of unbelievers. They see the conspicuous difference between the lives of the Companions of the Garden and that of themselves. Allah draws attention to the difference of the Companions of the Garden and of the Fire.

Allah depicts the appearance of the Companions of the Fire in the Qur'an in the following way:

Their eyes will be downcast, darkened by debasement. (Surat al-Qalam: 43)

And faces that Day will be glowering. (Surat al-Qiyama: 24)

On the other hand, Allah describes the faces of the Companions of the Garden as follows:

That Day some faces will be radiant, laughing, rejoicing. (Surah Abasa: 38-39)

Unbelievers will not find any food other than boiling water, pus, bitter thorn, and the tree of zaqqum. Believers, on the other hand, will be rewarded with rivers of milk and honey, delicious drinks served in cups, all kinds of fruits and anything their souls desire. In a verse, Allah describes the food of the Companions of the Garden as follows:

An image of the Garden which is promised to those who have fear: in it there are rivers of water which will never spoil and rivers of milk whose taste will never change and rivers of wine, delightful to all who drink it, and rivers of honey of undiluted purity; in it they will have fruit of every kind and forgiveness from their Lord. Is that like those who will be in the Fire timelessly, for ever, with boiling water to drink which lacerates their bowels? (Surah Muhammad: 15)

Surely no parallels can be drawn between these favors granted to believers and the food of unbelievers, which by no means satisfy one's hunger and which become an eternal source of torment. They will be exposed to fire there for ages; their skins will be restored as they burn, and they will call for some relief and coolness. They will yearn for the favors granted to the Companions of the Garden resting in shade and they will ask for some for themselves. In the Qur'an, our Lord relates their situation as follows:

The Companions of the Fire will call out to the Companions of the Garden, "Throw down some water to us or some of what Allah has given you as provision." They will say, "Allah has forbidden them to the unbelievers: (Surat al-Araf: 50)

The calls of the unbelievers will never be answered. Allah maintains this in a verse:

... We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire whose billowing walls of smoke will hem them in. If they call for help, they will be helped with water like seething molten brass, frying their faces. What a noxious drink! What an evil repose! (Surat al-Kahf: 29)

Likewise, Allah will present the Companions of the Garden green garments of fine silk and rich brocade and bracelets of gold and silver. Meanwhile, the Companions of the Fire will have garments of tar and fire cut out for them. The believers will dwell in fine dwellings and lofty chambers, reclining on "sumptuous woven couches," exquisite rugs, and couches lined with rich brocade. Unbelievers, on the other hand, will have Hell as a resting place and covering layers on top of them.

Allah informs us in the Qur'an that believers will have anything they desire and the Companions of the Garden will be honored with a joyful and peaceful life in the Garden.

They will have whatever they wish for with their Lord. (Surat ash-Shura: 22)

So Allah has safeguarded them from the evil of that Day and has made them meet with radiance and pure joy. (Surat al-Insan: 11)

Had unbelievers assumed a conscientious, sincere and honest attitude in the world and complied with the commands of Allah, they would not now be subject to torment in Hell on that Day. Thus unbelievers will feel more regret when they think about the Companions of the Garden. Allah defines this torment in Hell and the regret they feel as "suffering" and states that each one of their attempts to escape from this suffering will result in yet another punishment:

Every time they want to come out of it, because of their suffering, they will be driven back into it: "Taste the punishment of the Burning!" (Surat al-Hajj: 22)

That is because Hell is a place of no return. It is the place, where the feeling of regret brings no benefit to man. Furthermore in Hell, the concept of regret is not defined. At the moment unbelievers die, angels will tell them that they will never again experience anything good for all eternity-unless Allah wills otherwise:

On the Day they see the angels, there will be no good news that Day for the evildoers. They will say, "There is an absolute ban." (Surat al-Furqan: 22)

For this reason, disbelievers find their personal destruction to be the only way of salvation. They will beg for their destruction, but to no avail. This is because they were granted a lifetime, which was long enough to receive admonition, but they willfully favored denial and turned away from the truth. In return for these, Allah will tell them the following:

Do not cry out today for just one destruction, cry out for many destructions! (Surat al-Furqan: 14)

"Roast in it! And bear it patiently or do not bear it patiently. It makes no difference either way. You are simply being repaid for what you did." (Surat at-Tur: 16)

In the fortieth verse of Surat al-Araf, Allah describes the impossibility of unbelievers' leaving Hell and entering the Garden, saying that "they will not enter the Garden until a camel goes through a needle's eye." Furthermore, Allah informs that unbelievers will be disregarded and forgotten since, in the world, they turned away from the right way and ignored their meeting the Day of Judgment. They will not receive any answer or help from Allah:

He will say, "Just as Our Signs came to you and you forgot them, in the same way you too are forgotten today." (Surah Taha: 126)

They will be told, "Today We have forgotten you as you forgot the meeting of this your Day. Your refuge is the Fire and you have no helpers." (Surat al-Jathiyya: 34)

Those who took their religions as a diversion and a game, and were deluded by the life of the world. Today We will forget them just as they forgot the encounter of this Day and denied Our Signs. (Surat al-Araf: 51)

They will implore Allah to be saved from the fire and Allah will answer them in the following way:

"Our Lord, remove us from it! Then if we revert again, we will definitely be wrongdoers." He will say, "Slink away into it and do not speak to Me." (Surat al-Muminun: 107-108)

Unbelievers will receive a terrible punishment. This punishment will be remaining all alone in torment and not receiving any help. Allah will not bestow His mercy on them, will not protect them, and will not forgive their sins and faults. If they had taken refuge in Allah when they were alive, they would have found Allah to be ever Forgiving and Most Merciful towards them. Yet, once they enter Hell, these facts occurring to their minds will no longer be of any help.

After all that has been said, one has to ponder over certain facts right now: that Allah is full of mercy and compassion towards His servants and that one needs to make Allah alone one's friend and protector. For once the gates of Hell are closed behind one, they will not open as long as Allah wills and there will be no more opportunities granted as in this world. In the Qur'an, Allah describes the way for salvation as follows:

Except those who repent and put things right and hold fast to Allah and dedicate their religion to Allah alone; they are with the believers. Allah will give the believers an immense reward. Why should Allah punish you if you are thankful and have faith? Allah is All-Thankful, All-Knowing. (Surat an-Nisa: 146-147)

Chapter 3 The Regret Felt On Doomsday

He (The Prophet) said, 'My Lord, help me because of their calling me a liar!'
He (Allah) said, 'In a short while they will be full of regret.'

(Surat al-Muminun: 39-40)

Chapter 3

The Regret Felt On Doomsday

The Trumpet is blown and those in the heavens and those in the earth swoon away, except those Allah wills. Then it is blown a second time and at once they stand upright, looking on. And the earth shines with the Pure Light of its Lord; the Book is put in place; the Prophets and witnesses are brought; it is decided between them with the truth; and they are not wronged. Every self is repaid in full for what it did. He knows best what they are doing. (Surat az-Zumar: 68-70)

All who have ever lived on earth are resurrected on the Day of Judgment. The moment of resurrection is a perplexing one for unbelievers. Allah relates the fearful and bewildered conversations among unbelievers at the moment of resurrection in the Qur'an as follows:

They will say, "Alas for us! Who has raised us from our resting-place? This is what the All-Merciful promised us. The Messengers were telling the truth." (Surah Ya Sin: 52)

And the True Promise is very close, the eyes of those who were unbelievers will be transfixed: "Alas for us! We were unmindful of this! No, rather we were definitely wrongdoers." (Surat al-Anbiya': 97)

The phrase "Alas for us" is an expression of the great panic, fear and regret of unbelievers. At the moment they are resurrected, they realize that those who warned them against the Hereafter were right and truthful. Much to their detriment, they are now aware that other warnings will surface one after another. Right now, with no possibility to escape, they will be dragged to this torment, which they never considered as real before.

After rising from the dead, unbelievers will be brought to stand before Allah. Then they will be called to account for what they did in the world and judgment will be made accordingly. For this purpose, they are brought into the Presence of Allah with all those other arrogant people who transgressed against the limits set by Allah.

The Day the Trumpet is blown and you come in droves. (Surat an-Naba: 18)

On the judgment day, unbelievers will come to understand that no other action is more important than earning the consent of Allah and avoiding His wrath. This is also stated in a hadith of the Prophet (saas) in which he gave the example of an unbeliever questioned on the judgment day:

A disbeliever will be brought on the Day of Resurrection and will be asked. "Suppose you had as much as gold as to fill the earth, would you offer it to ransom yourself?" He will reply: "Yes". Then it will be said to him, "You were asked for something easier than that [to join none in worship with Allah (i.e. to accept Islam, but you refused)]" (Bukhari)

Their failure to have grasped this fact in the world, where the signs of Allah's power and existence were obvious, intensifies their regret. That day, they will plainly see that they missed this opportunity. Their regret is manifest from the way they speak:

The Day when a wrongdoer will bite his hands and say, "Alas for me! If only I had gone the way of the Messenger! Alas for me! If only I had not taken so-and-so for a friend! He led me astray from the Reminder after it came to me." Evil always leaves man in the lurch. (Surat al-Furqan: 27-29)

On the Day of Judgment, unbelievers will be so occupied with their own troubles that they turn a blind eye to the calls of their own children, spouses, mothers, and fathers. In the Qur'an, this is described as follows:

When the Deafening Blast comes, the Day a man will flee from his brother and his mother and his father, and his wife and his children: on that Day every man among them will have concerns enough of his own. (Surah Abasa: 33-37)

The concept of lineage loses its importance. From then on, the only thing that matters is to be saved from the penalty of Allah. This is so important that, in order to be saved from this state, unbelievers even offer to sacrifice their own sons, spouses, brothers, etc.

On the Day the sky is like molten brass and the mountains like tufts of colored wool. No good friend will ask about his friend even though they can see each other. An evildoer will wish he could ransom himself from the punishment of that Day, by means of his sons, or his wife or his brother or his family who sheltered him or everyone else on earth, if that only meant that he could save himself. (Surat al-Ma'arij: 8-14)

Surely, these efforts of unbelievers bring no results. The main target of unbelievers in the worldly life was amassing a fortune, making a career, or having sons. They spent all their lives to attain these goals. However, on the Day of Judgment, they grasp that all these concepts are not precious at all. Judgment Day is the time when unbelievers will desire to vanish. For believers, however, it is the time zealously and joyfully awaited for. Allah describes these moments in His verses as follows:

That Day some faces will be radiant, laughing, rejoicing. That Day some faces will be dust-covered, overcast with gloom. Those are the dissolute unbelievers." (Surah Abasa: 38-42)

On the Day of Reckoning, the most precious valuables one possesses are the righteous deeds purely done to earn the good pleasure of Allah. However, unbelievers have never striven for this treasure, which would bring them eternal salvation. Not a single good deed or blessing they have to present to Allah on that day. Having no faith in Allah, all their righteous efforts will have been wasted. Allah states this fact as follows:

Say: "Shall I inform you of the greatest losers in their actions? People whose efforts in the life of the world are misguided while they suppose that they are doing good." Those are the people who reject their Lord's Signs and the meeting with Him.

Their actions will come to nothing and, on the Day of Resurrection, We will not assign them any weight." (Surat al-Kahf: 103-105)

Those who denied the religion (deen) and harbored doubts about the existence of the Day of Judgment, did not feel the necessity to get prepared for this approaching day. For a lifetime, they occupied themselves with amassing wealth and following their vain desires. Now they confront a regret they will never be free of. Allah states this in the Qur'an in this way:

They will say, "Alas for us! This is the Day of Reckoning!" This is the Day of Decision you used to deny. (Surat as-Saffat: 20-21)

Furthermore, unbelievers will find all the unscrupulous, ungrateful and evil deeds that they committed in the world discovered in the Presence of Allah. They will personally bear witness to the sins they committed. Allah describes this in the Qur'an as follows:

...they will be paraded before your Lord in ranks: "You have come to Us just as We created you at first. Yes indeed! Even though you claimed that We would not fix a time with you." The Book will be set in place and you will see the evildoers fearful of what is in it. They will say, "Alas for us! What is this Book which does not pass over any action, small or great, without recording it?" They will find there everything they did and your Lord will not wrong anyone at all. (Surat al-Kahf: 48-49)

That Day people will emerge segregated to see the results of their actions. Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. Whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it." (Surat az-Zilzala: 6-8)

As Allah relates in the Qur'an, then comes the time for unbelievers to see their records.

Believers receive their records from their right side, whilst unbelievers from left. From the moment the angels of death took their souls, unbelievers were subjected to an unending suffering. The moment they receive their records is another suffering. They avoid looking at the crimes they perpetrated and wish to vanish. Allah describes this in the verses as follows:

But as for him who is given his Book in his left hand, he will say, "If only I had not been given my Book and had not known about my Reckoning! If only death had really been the end! My wealth has been of no use to me. My power has vanished." (Surat al-Haqqa: 25-29)

... on the Day when a man will see what he has done, and the unbeliever will say, "Oh, if only I were dust!" (Surat an-Naba: 40)

But as for him who is given his Book behind his back, he will cry out for destruction but will be roasted in a Searing Blaze. He used to be joyful in his family. He thought that he was never going to return. But in fact his Lord was always watching him! (Surat al-Inshiqaq: 10-15)

Witnessing these scenes, unbelievers understand the opportunity that they missed in the world and feel a most severe regret. Adding to their regret, they see and observe the blissful life of believers in Paradise. Because previously, they were invited to truth by believers but they arrogantly refused and turned a deaf ear to them.

But now a "just balance" (Surat al-Anbiyaí: 47) is set. People are led to Hell or Paradise, based on their records. On the Day of Judgment, unbelievers see where they are heading for. Upon this, fear overtakes them:

You will see the wrongdoers afraid of what they have earned, when it is about to land right on top of them. (Surat ash-Shura: 22)

The justice of Allah prevails and it entails the fairest rewarding and punishment:

We will set up the Just Balance on the Day of Resurrection and no self will be wronged in any way. Even if it is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, We will produce it. We are sufficient as a Reckoner. (Surat al-Anbiya': 47)

This process is easy for believers. However, it proves to be difficult and very painful for unbelievers. They are questioned for every each blessing Allah granted them in the world. They give an account of every each moment of their lives: about their failure to comply with the commands of Allah; their ungrateful attitudes; their inner rebellious thoughts and insults; the warnings that they ignored. However the insincere excuses they used to put forth in the world are no more acceptable. Allah describes the situation unbelievers confront on that day in the verses below:

On that Day, woe to the deniers! This is the Day they will not say a single word, nor will they be allowed to offer any excuses. On that Day, woe to the deniers! "This is the Day of Decision. We have gathered you and the earlier peoples. So if you have a ploy, use it against Me now!" On that Day, woe to the deniers! (Surat al-Mursalat: 34-40)

Those unbelievers with no good deeds to present to Allah "will know what it has made ready" (Surat at-Takwir: 14) for them. Allah describes this place of torment as a "bottomless pit" in the Qur'an:

As for him whose balance is heavy, he will have a most pleasant life. But as for him whose balance is light, his motherland is Hawiya (Pit). And what will convey to you what that is? A raging Fire! (Surat al-Qari'a: 6-11)

These are important to grasp the intensity of the regret unbelievers would experience on the Day of Judgment. The Day of Judgment is too late for one to feel regret. If one fully understands what is being told here and loses no time in engaging in good deeds, then he may hope for a "heavy balance (of good deeds)." Only such an endeavor will save one from great regret.

 

Chapter 2 The Beginning Of Regret For Disbelievers: DEATH

He (The Prophet) said, 'My Lord, help me because of their calling me a liar!'
He (Allah) said, 'In a short while they will be full of regret.'

(Surat al-Muminun: 39-40)

Chapter 2

The Beginning Of Regret For Disbelievers: DEATH

Every self will taste death. We test you with both good and evil as a trial. And you will be returned to Us. (Surat al-Anbiya': 35)

Death is considered to be an end and a final destruction by those who do not believe in the Hereafter. This is a flawed perception however because death is not an end but a beginning. For believers, it is the beginning of a perfect, eternal Paradise that is free from all evil and flaws. For unbelievers on the other hand, it is a transition to a life in Hell, where a great penalty is suffered.

Those who comprehend this reality live a pleasant end in the world when death meets them and a pleasant beginning in the Hereafter. These two occur simultaneously. Unbelievers, on the other hand, encounter the irrecoverable regret of disregarding this reality, of which they had been previously informed. They suffer this regret at every moment for as long as Allah wills and never find respite from it.

Although death is not a subject of profound thought for most people, it is an unavoidable end. That is because Allah creates death as the definite end of this life. So far, not a single person has avoided death. No one's property, wealth, career, or close friends have provided salvation from death. Certainly everyone will meet death. Allah relates this fact in many verses in the Qur'an:

Wherever you are, death will catch up with you, even if you are in impregnable fortresses.(Surat an-Nisa: 78)

Say: "Death, from which you are fleeing, will certainly catch up with you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible and He will inform you about what you did." (Surat al-Jumu'a: 8)

Allah will not give anyone more time, once their time has come. Allah is aware of what you do. (Surat al-Munafiqun: 11)

So, does avoiding contemplation over death and the life after death save one from facing this reality? Surely the answer to this question is "No". Since man is desperate against death, the most rational thing to do is to constantly contemplate upon death and to get prepared for the hereafter, as the Prophet Muhammad (saas) said "Ponder on death a lot. Allah opens the heart of that person who thinks about death a lot and makes death easy for him." (Narrated by Abu Huraira)

Those who neglect thinking about the Hereafter whilst being distracted by this fleeting worldly life are taken by surprise by death. Those saying "While we are young, we can make the most of our lives and think about death in the latter years of our lives" grasp that they will never have such an opportunity. That is because death is predestined by Allah. A person may well die before he grows old. In this case, solely making future plans and postponing the fulfillment of Allah's commands will only lead to dreadful regret.

Those who spend their lives distant from Allah and who only repent when they realize they are close to death will experience such regret. Yet repentance which arises from the fear of death and which doesn't bear sincere intention to correct and purify one's self may not be acceptable by Allah. Openly being in favor of this life despite the existence of death, such people desperately strive to save themselves only when they realize death is very near. This however brings no benefit. Allah knows their insincerity, because Allah is closer to man than his jugular vein. He knows what is inside of man, including his most inner thoughts and deepest secrets. Allah informs us in the Qur'an that He will not accept repentance based on the fear of death at the very last moment:

There is no repentance for people who persist in doing evil until death comes to them and who then say, "Now I repent," nor for people who die as an unbeliever. . We have prepared for them a painful punishment. (Surat an-Nisa: 18)

It is stated in many verses that when another opportunity is granted, these insincere people soon resume their ungrateful attitude:

If only you could see when they are standing before the Fire and saying, "Oh! If only we could be sent back again, we would not deny the Signs of our Lord and we would be among the believers." No, it is simply that what they were concealing before has been shown to them; and if they were sent back they would merely return to what they were forbidden to do. Truly they are liars. (Surat al-An'am: 27-28)

For this reason, it would be erroneous to have a rationale based on the thought "I will repent when the appropriate time comes." This kind of thinking will not save one from the torment in Hell. So if one does not want to suffer an eternal grievous penalty after death, he should live for a purpose, knowing that he will absolutely meet Allah and have to give an account of his actions.

The Regret of Unbelievers at the Moment of Death

Throughout their lives, people are reminded many times of the existence of the Garden and the Fire and that they have to get prepared for the afterlife. Yet unbelievers turn a deaf ear to these reminders. Upon facing death, one of the main sources of their regret is the fact that they have led themselves to their own destruction. Nobody forced them; they, by their own will, chose this dreadful end for themselves. By the moment of death unbelievers start to suffer from grief. The dreadful fear felt at the time of death is the initial grief of this torment, which Allah illustrates in the Qur'an as follows:

...and one leg is entwined with the other: that Day he will be driven to your Lord. He neither affirmed the truth nor did he pray, but rather denied the truth and turned away and then went off to his family, swaggering. It is coming closer to you and closer. Then closer to you and closer still. (Surat al-Qiyama: 29-35)

Yet, one needs to keep in mind that only unbelievers suffer from this fear. Believers spend all their lives working to gain the good pleasure and love of Allah. For this reason, they are full of hope. Unbelievers, on the other hand, experience great belated regret when death overpowers them. Nevertheless, this regret by no means keeps them safe from the punishment because it is too late. In the Qur'an, it is stated that at the moment of death, the souls of unbelievers are taken with a great suffering and difficulty.

...If you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death when the angels are stretching out their hands, saying, "Disgorge your own selves! Today you will be repaid with the punishment of humiliation for saying something other than the truth about Allah, and being arrogant about His Signs." (Surat al-An'am: 93)

How will it be when the angels take them in death, beating their faces and their backs?(Surah Muhammad: 27)

It is surely unlikely to fully comprehend what unbelievers experience at the time of death. However, Allah depicts this situation so that man can contemplate and avoid meeting such an end. The angels of death, as the verses suggest, will take the souls of unbelievers whilst smiting their faces and their backs. By that moment, unbelievers will suffer physical pain accompanied by a deep regret since they will know they have no opportunity to return back.

At the moment of death, man experiences what befalls him with a very open conscious. This is the beginning of his eternal life. Death is only a transitional phase; it is actually the departure of soul from the flesh.

Due to the torment they suffer at the time of death, unbelievers grasp that they will be subjected to a great penalty that will last for all eternity-unless Allah wills otherwise. Those who lived all their lives distant from the religion of Allah start to earnestly implore Allah's forgiveness and safety. They plead to be sent back to the world, to do good deeds and to make up for what they have lost. But their wishes aren't acceptable because they were "given a life long enough so that they would receive admonition" as Allah maintains in the verse. They were given glad tidings of the gardens of Paradise and also warned against the fire of Hell, but they willfully turned away from all these truths. Allah states in the Qur'an that they will again tend to denial upon another opportunity:

When death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back again, so that perhaps I may act rightly regarding the things I failed to do!" No indeed! It is just words he utters... (Surat al-Muminun: 99-100)

Unbelievers knowingly did not prostrate before Allah, nor fulfill His orders, nor conform to the sublime morality. Allah says in the Qur'an that at the time of death, they wouldn't even be able to simply prostrate:

On the Day when legs are bared and they are called on to prostrate, they will not be able to do so. Their eyes will be downcast, darkened by debasement; for they were called on to prostrate when they were in full possession of their faculties. (Surat al-Qalam: 42-43)

There is another point that adds to the regret of people who, at the moment of death, comprehend that Allah's promises are all true. Believers, to whom unbelievers did not trust and take seriously in the world and even of whom they made fun, suffer none of the grief unbelievers go through on that day. They are eternally rewarded with the best of rewards because they spent all their lives sincerely to attain the consent of Allah. Unlike unbelievers, their souls are drawn out "gently" without any pain. (Surat an-Naziat: 2) As Allah describes in the verse, the angels greet the believers and give the good news of the Garden.

..those the angels take in a virtuous state. They say, "Peace be upon you! Enter the Garden for what you did." (Surat an-Nahl: 32)

This is another mental torment for the unbelievers. They were also offered the very same opportunities given to the believers in this world. Yet, they willingly traded the eternal blessings of the Garden for the short-lived worldly benefits. Although they were reminded that the world is merely a place of testing for man and the real abode is the Hereafter, they feigned ignorance about it. Therefore they didn't engage in good deeds to attain Paradise. Yet, living by the morals of the Qur'an and being a sincere believer is possible for everyone only by one's committed intention. Pondering upon all these adds to the regret of unbelievers.

In one verse Allah says:

Or do those who perpetrate evil deeds suppose that We will make them like those who have faith and do right actions, so that their lives and deaths will be the same? How bad their judgment is! (Surat al-Jathiyya: 21)

In other words, every soul will be rewarded appropriately, the good with glad tidings and the evil with wrathful punishment.

Furthermore the fear of knowing that Hell is prepared for them will intensify the regret felt by unbelievers. Until then they have only experienced the suffering of the removal of their souls. This suffering however makes them aware of their impending doom.

This regret of unbelievers beginning with death will last as long as Allah wills. Every passing moment, hour, and day, they will remain in this everlasting penalty and they will not be saved from regret.

However, it is in the hands of man not to suffer such great regret. Waiting to encounter death is not necessarily the way to have a grasp of the reality of the death and beyond. For believers, the promise of Allah is enough. After death, the justice of Allah certainly prevails; unbelievers are punished with fire and believers are rewarded with the gardens of Paradise.

So, the wisest thing for a person to do who has not met death yet would be to seek refuge in Allah and to hope for His forgiveness. In addition, one needs to attentively explore the Qur'an, the only guide to the true path for humanity, and the sunnah of the Prophet (saas) to attain a thorough understanding of it and live by what they are commanded. Rather than avoidance from the thought of death, man will benefit from pondering over its reality and closeness and acting accordingly.

The one who turns towards Allah earns the consent of Allah both in this world and in the Hereafter and enters the Garden, well pleased with our Lord and our Lord well pleased with him. Allah gives the believers the good news of this in the Qur'an:

O self at rest and at peace, return to your Lord, well-pleasing and well-pleased! Enter among My slaves! Enter My Garden. (Surat al-Fajr: 27-30)

The way to be saved from regret and win eternal bliss is to reflect on death and the Hereafter and comply with the way of Allah, the Creator of man.

 

Chapter 1 The Regret That Man Feels In The World

He (The Prophet) said, 'My Lord, help me because of their calling me a liar!'
He (Allah) said, 'In a short while they will be full of regret.'

(Surat al-Muminun: 39-40)

Chapter 1

The Regret That Man Feels In The World

Turn to your Lord and submit to Him before punishment comes upon you, for then you cannot be helped. Follow the best that has been sent down to you from your Lord before the punishment comes upon you suddenly when you are not expecting it. (Surat az-Zumar: 54-55)

When one is in mortal danger, his "conscience" starts to swiftly account for his life and appraises his life and actions. If this person did not live by the religion (deen) of Allah and did not engage in good deeds in this world, then he will be overwhelmed by grief and great regret. Many things that were neglected throughout his life appear suddenly and with clarity before his eyes. Maybe for the first time in his life, he realizes how close death is. He acknowledges that he did not lead a worldly life that entitles him to Paradise. He becomes aware that he has been ungrateful to Allah and he feels that this will not be left unanswered. A dreadful fear which he never experienced before surrounds him, and he understands that only Allah can save him from the situation he is in. Then, he promises Allah to remain thankful and right and always to remember this situation. He implores to Allah earnestly to be saved from the danger he is in. He asks just to be saved and to be given just one opportunity to stay alive...

However, after surviving such a mortal danger, some people do not remain true to their words and promises that they previously gave to Allah. As soon as Allah saves such a person, he returns to his former ways. The feelings of regret and submission are replaced by feelings of ingratitude. He forgets what he thought and realized at the moment he faced death. With the confidence of having overcome the danger, he turns away from Allah as if he was not the one who experienced regret and earnestly implored to Allah before. He resumes his life with even more attachment to the world, as if he had not been in a vulnerable situation a short while ago. In the Qur'an, several examples depict the psychological state of such people:

It is He Who conveys you on both land and sea so that when some of you are on a boat, running before a fair wind, rejoicing at it, and then a violent squall comes upon them and the waves come at them from every side and they realize there is no way of escape, they call on Allah, making their religion sincerely His: "If You rescue us from this, we will truly be among the thankful." But then, when He does rescue them, they become rebellious in the earth without any right to do so. Mankind, your rebelliousness is only against yourselves. There is the enjoyment of the life of the world and then you will return to Us and We will inform you about what you did. (Surah Yunus: 22-23)

When harm occurs to you at sea, those you call on vanish -except for Him alone! But when He delivers you to dry land, you turn away. Man truly is ungrateful. Do you feel secure against Him causing the shore to swallow you up or sending against you a sudden squall of stones? Then you will find no one to be your guardian. (Surat al-Isra: 67-68 )

As emphasized in the verse above, how can one be sure that he will not face a similar or a totally different danger again? Alternatively, how does one feel assured that he will be saved for another time? No doubt one would never guarantee that these things would not happen. Also keep in mind that getting out of danger will not make any difference in one's life. Ultimately, one will die one day, exactly when one exhausts the time determined for him. Then he will feel regret but this will not be of any benefit to him.

Such is the common psychological state of those that live apart from the religion (deen). Allah explains this situation as follows:

When harm touches man, he calls on Us, lying on his side or sitting down or standing up. Then when We remove the harm from him he carries on as if he had never called on Us when the harm first touched him. In that way We make what they have done appear good to the profligate. (Surah Yunus: 12)

When harm touches people they call on their Lord, turning to Him in repentance. But then, when He gives them a taste of mercy from Him, a group of them immediately associate others with their Lord. (Surat ar-Rum: 33)

The people depicted in these verses turn to Allah when they are faced with difficulty. Yet no sooner do they come out of this difficulty than they forget the promises they made to Allah and show ungratefulness. This attitude explains that the regret they felt actually arose from the helplessness one feels in a state of difficulty.

The regret peculiar to believers however is much different from the regret mentioned above for it brings the most benefit to man. True regret is not forgotten at once. It prompts one and even produces fundamental changes in one's character. One who feels sincere regret in his heart lives the rest of his life bestowed to him in compliance with Allah's consent, hoping for Allah's mercy and forgiveness. When circumstances opportunity or a new chance is granted, he never dares to return to his former way of life, being aware that such ungratefulness means a loss for him.

Allah in the Qur'an relates the psychological state of the people facing death aboard the ship so that it may give a warning to all people. That is because their disposition exists in every individual's ego. So drawing a lesson from this example described in the verses above, one should seriously avoid this negative aspect of one's soul and take a sincere audit of one's conscience. Then, he should ask the following questions to himself:

"What kind of a psychological state would I be in, had I been in a similar situation? What would make me regret? What radical changes would I promise myself to make in my character, provided I was saved from the danger? What would I give up doing and what decisions would I sincerely put into practice?"

To consider these and act accordingly, being physically in danger is not necessarily essential. It is all possible that someone failing to consider such a possibility might experience it very soon. Or, he may never face such danger for a lifetime. In both cases however, one thing is certain: when the moment of death destined for a person meets him, he will suddenly find the angels of death next to him. At this very moment when he fully acknowledges the fact of death, if he failed to lead his life in the way of Allah, he would definitely have things to regret.

To avoid regret in this world and the Hereafter, the only thing to do is to turn toward Allah, be mindful of one's duties to Allah, and fulfill the commands of Allah as stated in the Qur'an. Death is too close, so man should never delay doing the things that he is held responsible for. He should put his sincere decisions into action with patience and determination. The sincerity and closeness to Allah should be the sincerity one feels in times of danger and helplessness, if not more.

The most important fact to be remembered is the following: the main purpose of man's existence in this world is to serve Allah and be a servant who earns His good pleasure. Everything except this-namely, one's success, possessions, family, career, etc-are only the means whereby one may get closer to Allah. The efforts of those who endeavor solely to attain those means unconsciously, forgetting and ignoring that these favors are granted to them by Allah so that they turn to Him and render their thanks to Him, will be in vain-unless Allah wills otherwise. Temporary benefits attained in this world can be of no help to man in the Hereafter. In the Qur'an, our Almighty Lord Allah states that these are the sorts of people who will be most overwhelmed with grief:

Say: "Shall I inform you of the greatest losers in their actions? People whose efforts in the life of the world are misguided while they suppose that they are doing good." Those are the people who reject their Lord's Signs and the meeting with Him.

Their actions will come to nothing and, on the Day of Resurrection, We will not assign them any weight. (Surat al-Kahf: 103-105)

Provided that one attains the good pleasure of Allah in this world by way of his attitude and morals, Allah will certainly protect him both in this world and beyond. However if he loses this opportunity in this world, he will regret this terrible error at the moment the angels of death appear to him. This error, unlikely to be compensated for, will be a cause for eternal regret-unless Allah wills otherwise. In the Qur'an, Allah describes the regret that people feel in His Presence as follows:

He will say, "Oh! If only I had prepared in advance for this life of mine!" (Surat al-Fajr: 24)

...He said, "Oh, if only I had not associated anyone with my Lord!" (Surat al-Kahf: 42)

.. "Alas for me! If only I had gone the way of the Messenger!" (Surat al-Furqan: 27)

A person who would not like to desperately utter these words should, right at this moment, submit to our Lord and live by the principles laid by our Creator.

One Should Take Heed From the Regret Felt in This World

The life of this world is an important opportunity granted so that man can earn the perfect and eternal life of the Hereafter.

Those who do not make use of this opportunity and live a life far removed from the religion of Islam will regret every moment they spent in the world when they see the torment in the Hereafter. This is due to the fact that these people had been warned several times and been informed about the existence of the two abodes-Hell and Paradise. They had also been informed that their conduct would dictate which abode they would earn, just as the Prophet (saas) said, "The world is the farm of the Hereafter." (Ihya' al-ulum, iv, 14.)

Allah mercifully provides training for mankind about this feeling of regret in this world by stimulating one's thoughts and feelings through the experience of regret, so that he may avoid reaching this irreversible end. In addition, Allah gives people a certain amount of time so that they can purify themselves from their mistakes and flawed attitudes. During one's lifetime, every human being is offered the opportunity to repent and lead the rest of his life in the way of Allah.

Viewed from this point, the feeling of regret is actually a great opportunity that Allah grants to man. This is because after such deep regret, if one turns to Allah, Allah grants him eternal salvation in response to his sincerity. Conversely, if one heedlessly ignores these warnings and opportunities, then his punishment will be regret and grief that he will not be able to be saved unless Allah so wills it.

In the Qur'an, Allah illustrates various examples of people who regretted their mistakes. These feelings of regret urged a group of people to turn to Allah and saved them from repeating their mistake for the rest of their lives. Yet another group totally forgot about this regret in time, and out of recurring ignorance, returned to their former rebellious selves.

Allah informs us in the Qur'an of the regret experienced by the three people who did not take part in a battle during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (saas) as an apposite example of repentance stemming from regret:

Allah has turned towards the Prophet, and those who fled (their homes) and the helpers who followed him at the "time of difficulty," after the hearts of a group of them had almost deviated. Then He turned towards them - He is All-Gentle, Most Merciful to them-and also towards the three who were left behind, so that when the earth became narrow for them, for all its great breadth, and their own selves became constricted for them and they realized that there was no refuge from Allah except in Him, He relented towards them so that they might repent. Allah is the Ever-Returning, the Most Merciful. (Surat at-Tawba: 117-118)

As we learn from the verses above, the three people who were left behind suffered a great regret in their hearts. Consequently, they realized that the only way to be saved from this regret was to repent and seek refuge in Allah. This is the sincere regret that mobilizes people, changes them, and urges them to correct their mistakes. Such sincere people will lead a life in compliance with Allah's consent and hope for Allah's compassion and mercy. Allah informs us in the Qur'an that He surely accepts repentance from His servants and forgives them:

Except for those who repents and have faith and act rightly: Allah will transform the wrong actions of such people into good -Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful - for certainly all who repents and act rightly have turned sincerely towards Allah. (Surat al-Furqan: 70-71)

But as for those who do evil actions and then subsequently repent and have faith, in that case your Lord is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat al-Araf: 153)

But I am Ever-Forgiving to anyone who repents and has faith and acts rightly and then is guided. (Surah Ta Ha: 82)

It is also stated in the Qur'an that those nations to whom the prophets were sent regretted their wrong doings. Likewise, the people of the Prophet Moses (as) who couldn't wait for him to return from Mount Sinai with Allah's message forgot Allah and reverted to idol-worship. Allah describes this nation's great regret for their sin as follows:

After he left, Moses' people adopted a calf made from their ornaments, a form which made a lowing sound. Did they not see that it could not speak to them or guide them to any way? They adopted it and so they were wrongdoers.

When they took full stock of what they had done and saw they had been misled, they said, "If our Lord does not have mercy on us and forgive us, we will certainly be among the lost." (Surat al-A'raf: 148-149)

Allah emphasizes regret once again in the Qur'an in the story of the owners of the garden. Allah granted them a garden as a favor. However, they grew arrogant, appropriated the garden for themselves, and forgot to be grateful to Allah. Hence the punishment they received caused them to regret their actions and turn towards Allah. The verses concerning the owners of the garden as follows:

We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore that they would harvest in the morning but did not say the redeeming words, "If Allah wills." So a visitation from your Lord came upon it while they slept and in the morning it was like burnt land stripped bare. In the morning they called out to one another, "Leave early for your land if you want to pick the fruit." So they set off, quietly saying to one another, "Do not let any poor man into it today while you are there." They left early, intent on carrying out their scheme.

But when they saw it, they said, "We must have lost our way. No, the truth is we are destitute!" The best of them said, "Did I not say to you, why do you not glorify Allah?" They said, "Glory be to our Lord! Truly we have been wrongdoers." They turned to face each other in mutual accusation. They said, "Woe to us! We were indeed inordinate. Maybe our Lord will give us something better than it in exchange. We entreat our Lord." (Surat al-Qalam: 17-32)

But when the conditions change or they are given a new opportunity, most people forget the warning, which is supposed to make them regret, repent and encourage them to do good deeds. Those who ignore the warnings and return to their former attitudes will surely be punished unless they repent in time as was the case with Thamud, the people of the Prophet Salih. (as). These people blatantly rejected the warnings of the Prophet Salih (as), although they knew that they would regret their inevitable doom. Surely Allah will never break His promise in bringing forth His command. Allah informs us of this fact, which will be a lesson for all people in the Qur'an:

He said, "Here is a she-camel. She has a time for drinking and you have a time for drinking-on specified days. Do not do anything to harm her or the punishment of a terrible day will come down on you." But they hamstrung her and woke up full of remorse, for the punishment did come down them. There is certainly a Sign in that, yet most of them are not believers. Truly your Lord is the Almighty, the Most Merciful. (Surat ash-Shu'ara: 155-159)

One has to remember that Allah is just. He does not leave any fault unanswered; yet He also generously rewards the good deeds done for Him. He gives glad tidings of His mercy and Paradise to those who turn towards Him with sincere repentance. Considering these, one should ask oneself the following: being aware of the intense trouble a temporary regret causes in this world, is it worth taking the risk of a regret that may last forever? Not to forget that this will be the regret one would suffer in the never-ending afterlife in Hell...

Surely, nobody would risk feeling such regret in the Hereafter. In this case, what one has to do is apparent: every single person in this world still has the time to seize this opportunity. The one who capitalizes on this favor of Allah will not only be saved from the fire but will also be the heir of the blessings of this world and the eternal Hereafter.

Therefore, every person who endeavors to attain these blessings and avoid the regret of the Companions of the Fire needs to devote himself to earning the pleasure of Allah. One needs to unconditionally follow the route bringing man out of darkness into light. Allah lays down this route in the following verses:

It is He Who calls down blessing on you, as do His angels, to bring you out of the darkness into the light. He is Most Merciful to the believers. Their greeting on the Day they meet Him will be "Peace!" and He has prepared a generous reward for them. (Surat al-Ahzab: 43-44)

 

Introduction

He (The Prophet) said, 'My Lord, help me because of their calling me a liar!'
He (Allah) said, 'In a short while they will be full of regret.'

(Surat al-Muminun: 39-40)

Introduction 

Occasionally a person faces various physical and spiritual sorrows and troubles in the world. Amongst these are feelings so intense that they cannot be compared with any other physical pain. This feeling that causes such great distress in the human soul is a feeling called "regret."

There are two completely different forms of regret, however. The regret felt by people of faith and the regret that non-believers experience. These two feelings are extremely different from one another.

Believers are the people who have an absolute faith in the fact that events take place by Allah's Will, and whatever befalls them does so by Allah's Will. This explains their all-important distinctive attribute of putting their unyielding trust in Allah, at good times, in trouble or when they make a mistake. The Prophet Muhammad (saas) pointed out the strong character of the believer with a comparison in the hadith below:

The similitude of a believer is that of a standing crop in a field which is shaken by wind and then it comes to its original position but it stands at its roots. (Muslim)

Upon making a mistake, a believer immediately repents with sincerity and hopes for Allah's forgiveness. As a result, he does not suffer from a distressful and long-lived feeling of regret. The regret felt by believers urges them to ask for repentance, to purify themselves and prevents them from repeating this error. It helps them rectify their errors and prevents them from plunging into a distressful and pessimistic mood. Moreover, this regret does not reduce their enthusiasm, devotion, or religious zeal nor does it drag them downward into a spiral of apprehension and depression.

Regret felt by unbelievers, on the other hand, is very distressing and long-lasting, as they do not put their trust in Allah when they encounter a difficulty or commit a transgression. Throughout their lives, they often use phrases like "I wish I had not done this..." "I wish I had never said this...," and so on.

More importantly, they are subject to a much greater regret in the Hereafter. Those who lived a life apart from the religion (deen) in this world will regret every misguided moment of their lives. They were warned before and invited to the straight path. They had enough time to contemplate and embrace the right way. Yet they did not listen when they were warned, ignoring the Hereafter as if they would never die. Then in the Hereafter, they will have no possibility to get back to this world and correct their errors. In the Qur'an, Allah relates their regretful expressions as follows:

We have warned you of an imminent punishment on the Day when a man will see what he has done, and the unbeliever will say, "Oh, if only I were dust!" (Surat an-Naba': 40)

If only you could see when they are standing before the Fire and saying, "Oh! If only we could be sent back again, we would not deny the Signs of our Lord and we would be among the believers." (Surat al-An'am: 27)

They will say, "If only we had really listened and used our intellect, we would not have been Companions of the Blaze." (Surat al-Mulk: 10)

The aim of this book is to warn people against a day when they will regret saying "had we only understood...," "had we only not rejected the signs of our Lord...," "had we only followed those who brought us the message...," "had we only done this and that" etc and to invite them to live for Allah while they still have the possibility to correct their wrongs.

Keep in mind that that day no one's regret will save him from Allah's wrath. The only way to avoid this regret is to submit to Allah while there is still time and to comply with the commands of Allah.

This book is an invitation to the way of Allah and a reminder of the penalty in the inevitable Hereafter, where there will be no place to hide nor any probability of deliverance. Allah reminds this fact in the Qur'an in this way:

Respond to your Lord before a Day comes from Allah which cannot be turned back. On that Day you will have no hiding-place and no means of denial. (Surat ash-Shura: 47)

Descriptions of Places in the Qur'an

Descriptions of Places in the Qur'an

The Qur'an provides detailed information about several prophets, their people, and the places in which they lived. Allah also draws our attention to areas that are suitable for settlement, environments that are beneficial for human health, and climates that are convenient for life.

Places of Shelter

While informing believers of the place where the Prophet 'Isa (as) and his mother Maryam lived, the Qur'an provides signs about the qualities of a sheltered place:

And We made the son of Maryam and his mother a Sign, and gave them shelter on a mountainside where there was a meadow and a flowing spring. (Surat al-Mu'minun: 50)

Following the Prophet 'Isa (as)'s birth, Maryam settled with him in such a district. One benefit of the place was that a river flowed through it. Before all else, such a location contains an abundant supply of water, which is essential for life. A river also facilitates physical and environmental cleanliness, as well as ensures the proper functioning of all bodily organs. Remaining without water for a prolonged period of time may cause very serious consequences, including death. Living in a place where there is a source of water allows people to have a ready supply of water to meet their bodily, hygienic, and other needs.

A settled area with a rich supply of water surely provides many other benefits. History shows that civilizations established alongside rivers made extensive use of these benefits.

As the verse maintains, a river whose water flows down a mountainside or a hill deposits fertile sediments in the river bed and, at the point where it leaves these sediments, gradually forms a mineral-rich and nourishing alluvial plane. Such an area is of great benefit to the quality and productivity of agriculture. Rivers facilitate irrigation and contribute to the fertility and growth of plantations. A copious supply of flowing water also promotes stockbreeding alongside the river.

Another reason why rivers have been a key element for all civilizations is that they promote such commercial and social activities as navigation, transportation, and fishing. For example, using the Nile river's benefits enabled the Egyptians to attain an advanced culture and civilization.

Besides these very important social and commercial benefits, the beautiful sight of a river is surely another blessing for the human soul. These sources of water, which are pleasing to both the eye and the ear, provide a beautiful view and make such settled areas quite valuable.

These benefits, of which we have mentioned only a few, are enough to show that places with an abundant supply of water are the most suitable places for settlement. Allah also points to this fact by describing the place in which Maryam and the Prophet 'Isa (as) lived.

Beautiful Places

In those verses about Paradise, Allah points to beautiful places and environments. Gardens are among such places, as we read:

As well as those two there will be two other Gardens. So which of your Lord's blessings do you both then deny? Of deep viridian green. (Surat ar-Rahman: 62-64)

Allah created humanity and knows what gives the most pleasure to one's soul. The pleasure a person derives from green lands is a manifestation of this fact.

But those who have fear of their Lord will have high-ceilinged halls, and more such halls built one above the other, and rivers flowing under them. That is Allah's promise. Allah does not break His promise. (Surat az-Zumar: 20)

Places with "rivers flowing under them" are mentioned in verses that describe Paradise. Residences and mansions in Paradise are said to be constructed on such places. Allah's promise to reward His true servants with places that have rivers flowing under them is a clear sign of the favorable nature of such places also in this world.

Gardens of fruits are also mentioned in the Qur'an as beautiful places. Allah makes fruits with different and striking smells, tastes, and colors grow out of dry soil. Tree branches laden with these fruits and gardens of such trees are obviously among the most beautiful places on earth. Again, from the Qur'an we learn how wonderful and admirable the gardens of Paradise will be in the eternal life.

A verse refers to gardens and fruits as follows:

He sends down water from the sky, from which We bring forth growth of every kind, and from that We bring forth the green shoots. And from them We bring forth close-packed seeds, and from the spathes of the date-palm date clusters hanging down, and gardens of grapes and olives and pomegranates, both similar and dissimilar. Look at their fruits as they bear fruit and ripen. There are Signs in that for people who have faith. (Surat al-An'am: 99)

Date palms from which "date clusters hang down" are striking both in appearance and taste. Besides, gardens of grapes, olives, and pomegranates, which vary in taste and color, have an impressive view once they start to bear their fruits and reach their full maturity.