Unquestionably true. But humannature can be changed. In fact humannature is being changed everyday. It has been gradually butsteadily changing during the longcenturies of recorded history. Andindeed, as we know from the scientificevidence of evolution, humannature has, during great unrecordedstages of the past, made enormouschanges from the time whenman like the animals crawled onall fours; knew not how to use hishands to grasp and project weapons;knew not the use of fire, norany other of the even elemental inventionsand discoveries whichlater were to start him on the pathof civilization.
YES, HUMAN nature is changing,and will doubtless continue tochange. But there needs to be animmense and spiritual force exertedif human nature is to changewith sufficient speed and directnessto overcome the imminent danger ofcataclysm which the world faces today.
allah sun over the occident pdf 12
However, today we deal withphysical phenomena as astoundingto us, if not more so, than the apparentlysupernatural occurrencesof an earlier day. Our scientistsare really performing wonders, orclearing away the obstructions sothat the wonders may be seen. Butexperimental observation is notenough. The laws governing certainactions and reactions are expressedultimately by mathematicalequations and these equations arecomposed of symbols the meaningof which is undetermined.
SOME followers of certain philosophiesseek this pathway in thehope of self-advancement. But thelovers of God are actuated by therequirements of servitude in theDivine pathway, and the longing toachieve the divine destinies thatHe has ordained. They cling neitherto life nor possessions. Theyrather know that, like the fruitconcealed in the tree, latent withinthem reposes the potentiality of adivine fruitage which must bebrought to maturity. Nevertheless,since divine health and well beingever attend the one who contactsthe vast reservoirs of life surgingin that inner realm of being, sucha one, reinforced with that agelesspower, witnesses, in himself, a capacity,a resourcefulness and aguidance denied to those whoweakly cling to the husks of sectarianism.For these are confinedby the limitations of attachment,and therefore invite to a greater orless degree the decompositional, destructiveforces of Mother Nature.
We stopped in front of a villaset on a hill with a very long narrowgarden in front. Not only wasthe entire facade of the house coveredwith choice rugs but the wholegarden wall around the entrancegate had been similarly decorated,and lovely rugs had been spreadupon the dusty pathway leading tothe residence.
The rise of the spirit of nationalismis responsible for some of thechanged conditions which missionsare facing. For example, thepresent government regulation inChina requires that the heads ofregistered colleges be Chinese andprohibits colleges from making theattendance of students at religiousexercises compulsory. In India,the rise of government collegeswith larger resources has resultedin some cases in institutions superiorto the Christian colleges. InJapan the fine system of government
spirit makes one conscious thatmankind is one, that his spiritualaspirations and his needs and desiresin material things differ notgreatly in whatever country helives. One is also conscious of thechallenge the report makes tochurchmen all over the westernworld. Already we hear the reverberationsof the controversy itis bound to stir. To those who arestill living in the nineteenth centurythe report seems radical in theextreme, even heretical. To thosewho are in touch with the rapidlychanging conditions in Asia therecommendations seem necessary,even urgent. And still a few considerthe report not radical enough,that it does not recognize how revolutionarythe changes in Asia are.
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH AND THE NEW ERA, by Dr. J. E. Esslemont,a gifted scientific scholar of England. This is themost comprehensive summary and explanation of the Bahá'íTeachings as yet given in a single volume. Price, $1.00;paper cover, 50 cents.
THE WISDOM TALKS OF 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ in Paris.This series of talks covers a wide range of subjects, andis perhaps the best single volume at a low price in which'Abdu'l-Bahá explains in His own words the Bahá'í Teaching.Price, paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.
Bound volumes Nos. 15 and 16, covering the years 1924 to 1925and 1925 to 1926, contain many of the most valuable and instructiveBahá'í teachings compiled from the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá,on such subjects as Education, Peace, The Solution of theEconomic Problem, Cooperation and Unity, Proof of the Existenceof God, and others equally as important. They also containarticles on various phases of the Bahá'i Cause and its teachingscontributed by Bahá'í writers and presented with clearnessand accuracy, reports of conferences and conventions, Bahá'íNews and Travel Notes and other interesting information.Volumes 17, 18 and 19 contain valuable material and informationfor students of religion, sociology, science, etc., both Bahá'ísand non-Bahá'ís.
It was printed by Friedrich Risner in 1572, with the title Opticae thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nuncprimum editi; Eiusdem liber De Crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus (English: Treasury of Optics: seven books by the Arab Alhazen, first edition; by the same, on twilight and the height of clouds).[53]Risner is also the author of the name variant "Alhazen"; before Risner he was known in the west as Alhacen.[54]Works by Alhazen on geometric subjects were discovered in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris in 1834 by E. A. Sedillot. In all, A. Mark Smith has accounted for 18 full or near-complete manuscripts, and five fragments, which are preserved in 14 locations, including one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and one in the library of Bruges.[55]
In a more detailed account of Ibn al-Haytham's contribution to the study of binocular vision based on Lejeune[69] and Sabra,[70] Raynaud[71] showed that the concepts of correspondence, homonymous and crossed diplopia were in place in Ibn al-Haytham's optics. But contrary to Howard, he explained why Ibn al-Haytham did not give the circular figure of the horopter and why, by reasoning experimentally, he was in fact closer to the discovery of Panum's fusional area than that of the Vieth-Müller circle. In this regard, Ibn al-Haytham's theory of binocular vision faced two main limits: the lack of recognition of the role of the retina, and obviously the lack of an experimental investigation of ocular tracts.
An aspect associated with Alhazen's optical research is related to systemic and methodological reliance on experimentation (i'tibar)(Arabic: اختبار) and controlled testing in his scientific inquiries. Moreover, his experimental directives rested on combining classical physics (ilm tabi'i) with mathematics (ta'alim; geometry in particular). This mathematical-physical approach to experimental science supported most of his propositions in Kitab al-Manazir (The Optics; De aspectibus or Perspectivae)[78] and grounded his theories of vision, light and colour, as well as his research in catoptrics and dioptrics (the study of the reflection and refraction of light, respectively).[79]
His work on catoptrics in Book V of the Book of Optics contains a discussion of what is now known as Alhazen's problem, first formulated by Ptolemy in 150 AD. It comprises drawing lines from two points in the plane of a circle meeting at a point on the circumference and making equal angles with the normal at that point. This is equivalent to finding the point on the edge of a circular billiard table at which a player must aim a cue ball at a given point to make it bounce off the table edge and hit another ball at a second given point. Thus, its main application in optics is to solve the problem, "Given a light source and a spherical mirror, find the point on the mirror where the light will be reflected to the eye of an observer." This leads to an equation of the fourth degree.[84] This eventually led Alhazen to derive a formula for the sum of fourth powers, where previously only the formulas for the sums of squares and cubes had been stated. His method can be readily generalized to find the formula for the sum of any integral powers, although he did not himself do this (perhaps because he only needed the fourth power to calculate the volume of the paraboloid he was interested in). He used his result on sums of integral powers to perform what would now be called an integration, where the formulas for the sums of integral squares and fourth powers allowed him to calculate the volume of a paraboloid.[85] Alhazen eventually solved the problem using conic sections and a geometric proof. His solution was extremely long and complicated and may not have been understood by mathematicians reading him in Latin translation.Later mathematicians used Descartes' analytical methods to analyse the problem.[86] An algebraic solution to the problem was finally found in 1965 by Jack M. Elkin, an actuarian.[87] Other solutions were discovered in 1989, by Harald Riede[88] and in 1997 by the Oxford mathematician Peter M. Neumann.[89][90]Recently, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) researchers solved the extension of Alhazen's problem to general rotationally symmetric quadric mirrors including hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptical mirrors.[91]
Very often Ibn al-Haytham's discoveries benefited from the intersection of mathematical and experimental contributions. This is the case with On the shape of the eclipse. Besides the fact that this treatise allowed more people to study partial eclipses of the sun, it especially allowed to better understand how the camera obscura works. This treatise is a physico-mathematical study of image formation inside the camera obscura. Ibn al-Haytham takes an experimental approach, and determines the result by varying the size and the shape of the aperture, the focal length of the camera, the shape and intensity of the light source.[96] 2ff7e9595c
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