New Articles:

The Baby AMAAS

Mohammad Jalaluddin, Ph. D.*

Although they had a glorious history of leadership in all spheres of life, Muslims all over the world are lagging behind in almost all fields of human development including science and technology. In the past, beginning in the seventh century, the Muslim society brought and maintained a good balance between physical and spiritual development and there by claimed and occupied a tremendously high position in the global civilization, particularly in Asia and Northern Africa. By virtue of the spirit of Islam, Muslims enjoyed much success not only in the quality of human life but also in wealth and occupations. At the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe where spirituality was in sharp decline in late eighteenth century, Muslim leaders were confused and perplexed as to how they could maintain the supremacy and leadership with their highly achieved dignity. The rapid growth of the West in materialistic development shook the foundation of the pride of Muslim rulers most of whom were already drowned in false pomp and grandeur. The then Muslim society, especially the leadership, could not see much prospect with spirituality, and thus, quickly lost the balance of life to mundane affairs. Eventually, the power and wealth became the causes of the 'diminishing return' for them. The rulers, along with the people, became too fat to fight and finally lost the battle.

After suffering this setback for about two centuries, Muslims have begun to come to their senses, though with limited leadership, by coming together to form organizations to at least survive as respectable human beings. While the Afro-Asia is still asleep, the Muslim in the America and Western Europe seem to be waking up. It has started to look like the sun may rise from the West. This obviously is a very good sign, and Muslims may come up as worthy descendants of their notable predecessors.

A number of Muslim organizations are currently functioning in the United States. Most of these are voluntary and non-profit organizations. Some are national or regional while others are international in their dimension. The scopes of these organizations are also varied. Many of them belong to certain professional groups having their goals and objectives to promote collaborative relationships and professional developments. Others are devoted to providing benevolent and humanitarian services as food distribution, medical supplies, educational rehabilitation, in areas around the world where people are suffering from natural calamities and ravages of wars. The All Muslim Association for the Advancement of Science (AMAAS) is one such organization.

AMAAS is a global organization that is unique in its origin, characteristics, and goals. It is probably the only international Muslim grass-root organization with a mission to address the existing deficiencies of Muslims in the fields of science and technology. It is still in its infancy, just beginning to walk on its tiny little feet. The baby is healthy and strong and showing the potential of reaching its goals. In its effort to walk, the baby AMAAS is extending its hands, with the chubby little fingers partially stretched, for help and support from all fellow Muslims. Let us pray to the Allah the Almighty that AMAAS may succeed in its noble goals and objectives.

* Dr. Jalaluddin is a Professor of Agronomy in University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA. He is an active member of AMAAS.

Astrology: Science or Superstition?

M. A. K. Lodhi, Ph. D.*

The fortnight of March 20 though April 3, was very exciting for watching C/1995O1, Hale-Bop Comet. This is because it approaches closest to the Earth at 197 million kilometer on March 23, 1997, and the Sun at 140 million kilometer on April 1, 1997, moving about 44 km/Sec at that time.

While we were making arrangements for watching the comet at one of the university's observatories for astronomy students and the general public, I received telephone calls from the representatives of ABC and CBS TV networks. They both asked if I would be available for commenting on the "hidden powers" of Hale-Bop which led to the mass suicide of 39 people in San Diego, California? I could not believe what I heard. I asked the representative who called first, to repeat who further explained to me what had happened to the lives of that group. I invited their crew for interview, any way, later in the afternoon. These people, who had committed suicide believed that some extra-terrestrial object will come close to the earth to take those who give up their lives in this world to go to the "other world." They claimed that they "saw" an object behind the comet Hale-Bop, three times in size as the Earth, and that was "the object" to take them away. Their belief was so strong in their hypothesis and "seeing" the object is that they "transported" themselves as they did. Of course, I said, there is no such object behind Hale-Bop seen and reported by any observatory or individual astronomer. You will see a band around the coma if you watch through a strong pairs of binocular or telescope. This band is due to the fast rotation of the core and ejecting a flurry of gas and dust particles. This panorama is like water sprinkler, sprinkling the water produces a circle around the sprinkler.

Comets are quite common objects in the Earth's sky. Hale-Bop is very bright. Its magnitude is about -1 around April 1, 1997 whereas as the respective magnitudes of the full Moon and the Sun are -12.5 and -26.8.

Other Comets up to 15 to 20 in number can be detected in the sky with powerful telescope at any one time. A prominent naked eye comets can be expected only about one in decade. They, however, filled the sky about 4 billion years ago.

Associating the celestial phenomena with world events has been in practice since time immemorial. People had sacrificed the human lives for the good of the society or the world as a whole on the prediction of astrology quite frequently in the distant past. Today there are good number of people found in believing in astrology but very rarely are seen the examples like one that took place in San Diego, California, very recently. In order to filly fathom this mass suicide- "transportation to another world"- we need to historically contextualize astrological myths which of course gave births to astronomical sciences.

Astronomy developed partially because people believed wrongfully that there was a practical benefit in being able to predict the positions of heavenly bodies which affect individual lives and the affairs of the nations. So much so, that astrology developed and was regarded as a full-fledged "science" by the Egyptians, the Mesopotamia's, the Babylonians (one of the many subsets in the long history of Mesopotamian civilization), the Greeks, in the Medieval Ages, and pre-and post-Renaissance Europe.

Since observation of celestial bodies from an important part of astrology, this may be considered as the parent of astronomy, although the separation of the art of prophecy from the science of observation had taken place long before Ptolemy. Horoscope and astrology-medicine took a strong hold in the everyday lives of individuals in antiquity and is still doing so today.

Such words as the lunatic, saturnine, ill-starred, etc. indicate the influence of astrology as the ancient art of divining the future of human affairs and characteristics on general culture of past eras. During the 14th and 15th centuries, astrologers held important positions at many of the courts in Europe. Today, astrology-medicine is not in vogue anymore, but horoscope is still. According to a survey, more then fifty percent of the US teenagers believe in the horoscope. The former first ladies Nancy Regain and Eleanor Roosevelt have been reported to believe in the validity of astrology and its prediction.

The Origin and Belief of the Astrology: The details of the precise origins of astrology are lost in antiquity, but it is, at least thousands of years old and appeared in different forms in many cultures. It evolved at a time when humankind's view of the world was dominated by magic and superstition. We find records of astrological methods back through the recorded history of humankind. It perhaps began in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The first long-term written record of celestial observations were made by Mesopotamia's, who began to build ziggurats (observatories) about 6000 years ago. According to Enuma Elish, the Babylonian bible of genesis, gods created, ordered, and controlled the world. The god Marduk (later identified with Jupiter) formed the world from initial chaos to orderly cosmos, who fashioned the stars from unordered swirl of primeval waters.

The Mesopotamians believed that heavenly bodies (stars and planets) and their motions influenced the fortunes of kings, nation, and individuals. This was not an unreasonable assumption for the Babylonians, who had seen the relationship between the Sun's motion and seasonal events.

The Babylonians believed that influence of the Sun, Moon, and planets extended to natural events, such as floods and earthquakes. It became important for them to be able to predict the positions of the celestial objects in order to forecast natural events that have effects on political and military affairs. Only much later did people begin to believe that positions of the celestial objects can influence events in the long lives of individuals and begin to predict those influences using horoscopes.

They practiced what we call mundane astrology. Perhaps the Quran refers to this historical context: "… but the evil ones have been teaching man magic and such thing. As the angels Harut and Marut (Marduk) came down at Babylon…".

Although this knowledge was meant for seeking the right perspective of nature, they got involved in utter falsehood. "We have sent them the truth; but they indeed practice falsehood.".

When the Babylonian culture was absorbed by the Greeks, their astrology gradually influenced the entire Western world through the Renaissance. By the second century BC the Greek had democratized astrology by developing the tradition that the planets influenced the life of every individual. In particular, they believed that the configuration of the planets at the moment of a person's birth affected his personality and future. This form of astrology known as natal astrology, reached its acme with second century astrologer/astronomer Claudius Ptolemy. His Tetrabiblos, a treatise on astrology, remains the bible on the subject even today. Often the planets' name were associated with the gods of ancient mythologies; in some cases, they were themselves thought of as gods. In comparatively sophisticated Greece of antiquity, the planets had the names of gods and were credited with having same powers and influence as the gods whose names they bore.

Astrology, Today

A series of predictions were surveyed during 1958 through 1961 published in Les Cahiers Astrotogiques (a French astrological general) predicted by Andre Barboult (a "renowned" French astrologer). Each prediction failed categorically. Barbault again published in 1963 a series of predictions of world crises for 1965. Those predictions were compared against a list of 105 major world events for that year. The conclusion of this study was what was announced did not happen, what happened was not announced.

Another survey of 3011 specific predictions made during 1974 through 1979 in different US astrological magazines, were found only 338 correct- about 11 percent. Many of these could be attributed to general remarks which cover everything, thus nothing, shrewd guesses, vagueness, or inside information. Some of those 11 percent "correct predictions" said: "East-West tension will continue." " A tragedy will hit the eastern US in the spring," "Starlet A will marry director B," etc. A survey of 30 specific prediction for North America in 1984 was analyzed by G. Shatillon and published in 1985. Only two were found correct which corresponds to 7 percent only. After allowing for chance, there seemed to be nothing left for astrology to predict. (to be continued in next issue.)

This article is reprinted, with the permission of author, from Islamic Horizon in its slightly modified version.

* Dr. Lodhi is Professor of Physics in University of Texas at Lubbock, Texas. He is one of the founders and President of AMAAS.