The Salah requires praying Essay Example for Free

The Salah requires praying Essay One of the greatest hindrances to attaining peaceful relations in the Middle East comes from the fact that the Islamic religion is often misunderstood. In their book entitled, Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power, authors Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, discuss the origins of Islam by discussing various aspects of the religion and the cultural practices. Literally, Islam means peace or the surrender of one’s self to God. Islam was born 1,400 years ago, when the message of the Qur’an was relayed to the prophet Muhammad by Allah through the angel Gabriel. The fundamental decree of Islam is monotheism, that there is only one Creator, that he alone should be worshipped by mankind and that Muhammad is God’s final prophet. Aside from monotheism, there are also other five aspects of Islam: first, that the Qur’an is considered by Muslims as the undistorted message of God and is the central text of Islamic religion; second, that angels are the messengers of god, devoid of free will and dedicated only to the worship of God and the duties entrusted to them; third, belief in all of God’s prophets, from Adam to Jesus; fourth, that there will be a â€Å"Day of Judgment† or â€Å"Day of Resurrection† (yawm al-Qiyamah) where every human will account for all the deeds and sins he has committed during his lifetime at a time that is only known to God; lastly, the belief in the Divine Decree (al-qadaa wal-qadr ), that everything occurs according to the will of God. Islam also decrees five main duties that a Muslim must perform. Integral to the understanding of Islam are the Five Pillars. These five duties are otherwise also known as the Five Pillars of Islam: Shahadah, Salah, Zakat, Sawm and Hajj. The Shahadah is the primary tenet of Islam which is found in the shahadatan or â€Å"twin testimonies† wherein a Muslim declares that there is only one God worthy of devotion and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. The Salah requires praying five times a day at different times while facing towards the Kaaba in Mecca. The Zakat is the alms-giving of capable Muslims to the poor and needy. The Sawm is the requirement of fasting during the month of Ramadan wherein a Muslim desists from eating, drinking and having sexual intercourse from dusk until dawn. The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca a Muslim is required to make at least once in his or her lifetime. Aside from discussing these practices, they also discuss the cultural background of some of the most holy sites of the Islamic Religion. Considered as perhaps one of the holiest cities in the whole world, Makkah or Mecca, is located in the historic Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. With a population of nearly two million (1,700,000 to be exact), this region is deeply revered by Muslims because it contains the Grand Mosque of Mecca. From an etymological perspective, the word mecca means a location that is considered as the center of interest or a goal which religious adherents aspire for. This is synonymous with the religious devotion that is associated with the area. One of the major events that occur in this area is the annual pilgrimage to Makkah which happens during the season of the Hajj. This is very important for every Muslim since it is covered under the Five Pillars of Islam. Given this relevance, every able bodied Muslim who has the means to must visit Mecca at least once in their lifetime. This is a very strict rule. During this time, nobody else is allowed to enter the holy city especially people belonging to other faiths. Historically, the Mecca has always been considered as one of the most important cities in the Arabian Peninsula. Since the 6th century, it has always been the wealthiest of all the settlements in the area. Due to the abundant water supply that it got from the Zamzam Well, Mecca soon grew in prosperity and became the site of the Kaaba, the holiest site in all of Islam. Given this ideal location, it comes as no surprise then that this soon became one of the holiest areas in the world. The sacred mosque or the Al-Masjid al-Haram is the largest mosque in the entire world. Its location in the city of Mecca is only appropriate given the fact that it surrounds what is the holiest place in the entire Islam, the Kaaba. Also known as Haram or Haram Sharif, the mosque is capable of accommodating over four million (4,000,000) people during the great pilgrimage or the Hajj. It covers a floor area of approximately three hundred and fifty-six thousand eight hundred (356,800) square meters. References: Bloom, Jonathan and Blair, Sheila (2002). Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. New Haven, 2002

The Invasion of the Florida Everglades Ecosystem by the Brazilian Peppe

The Invasion of the Florida Everglades Ecosystem by the Brazilian Pepper It was as if the class had just stepped out onto the moon the way the limestone craters pockmarked the area's surface. It looked most uninhabitable indeed! Yet, here and there tufts of sawgrass had naturally reseeded and sprung up to reclaim the land. Like the American flag hoisted in place by Neil Armstrong on the moon, the tufts of sawgrass seemed to be saying, â€Å"One small step for sawgrass, one giant leap for the Everglades ecosystem!† Indeed, to witness the success of the Hole-in-the-Donut Restoration Project is like being the captain of a boat lost at sea catching a break in the fog long enough to glimpse a beacon's light before it becomes shrouded again in the mist of politics, economics and bureaucracy. Yet, that brief glimpse of light is enough to encourage even me, an increasingly cynical and apathetic environmentalist, to trudge on. Before this seemingly barren lunar landscape emerged, the first invasive exotic species to colonize what would later be called the Hole-in-the-Donut area were a group of Homosapiens sapiens subsp. agricultis , otherwise known as farmers. After the last of the farmers left in the early 1970s, they left behind a rock-plowed, slightly elevated patch of land pregnant with nutrients otherwise not known in the mesic prairie wetlands that originally occupied this space. Thus, the scene was set for one of the most destructive vegetative invasions seen in the Everglades ecosystem thus far. The army came from Brazil and was crafty enough to get its enemy to use its own resources to advance its invasion. Its weapon: clusters of bright red berries that enticed the likes of Florida 's state bird the mockingbird, cedar wax... ...con. Bot . 32: p. 354. 6) Morton, JF. 1978. Brazilian pepper, its impact on people, animals, and the environment. Econ. Bot . 32: p. 354. 7) Workman, R, ed. 1978. Schinus : Technical proceedings of techniques for control of Schinus in south Florida : A workshop for natural area managers. Tech. report. Sanibel (FL): The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, Inc. pg. 1. 8) Workman, R, ed. 1978. Schinus : Technical proceedings of techniques for control of Schinus in south Florida : A workshop for natural area managers. Tech. report. Sanibel (FL): The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, Inc. pg. 19. 9) Workman, R, ed. 1978. Schinus : Technical proceedings of techniques for control of Schinus in south Florida : A workshop for natural area managers. Tech. report. Sanibel (FL): The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, Inc. pg. 19.

Deception Point Page 53

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD†¦ THUD†¦ THUD†¦ THUD. THUD. THUD. â€Å"There's†¦ no time†¦ † Tolland said. It's not†¦ about us, she thought. It's about the information in my pocket. Rachel pictured the incriminating GPR printout inside the Velcro pocket of her Mark IX suit. I need to get the GPR printout into the hands of the NRO†¦ and soon. Even in her delirious state, Rachel was certain her message would be received. In the mid-eighties, the NRO had replaced the SAA with an array thirty times as powerful. Total global coverage: Classic Wizard, the NRO's $12 million ear to the ocean floor. In the next few hours the Cray supercomputers at the NRO/NSA listening post in Menwith Hill, England, would flag an anomalous sequence in one of the Arctic's hydrophones, decipher the pounding as an SOS, triangulate the coordinates, and dispatch a rescue plane from Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. The plane would find three bodies on an iceberg. Frozen. Dead. One would be an NRO employee†¦ and she would be carrying a strange piece of thermal paper in her pocket. A GPR printout. Norah Mangor's final legacy. When the rescuers studied the printout, the mysterious insertion tunnel beneath the meteorite would be revealed. From there, Rachel had no idea what would happen, but at least the secret would not die with them here on the ice. 60 Every president's transition into the White House involves a private tour of three heavily guarded warehouses containing priceless collections of past White House furniture: desks, silverware, bureaus, beds, and other items used by past presidents as far back as George Washington. During the tour, the transitioning president is invited to select any heirlooms he likes and use them as furnishings inside the White House during his term. Only the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom is a permanent White House fixture. Ironically, Lincoln never slept in it. The desk at which Zach Herney was currently sitting inside the Oval Office had once belonged to his idol, Harry Truman. The desk, though small by modern standards, served as a daily reminder to Zach Herney that the â€Å"buck† did indeed stop here, and that Herney was ultimately responsible for any shortcomings of his administration. Herney accepted the responsibility as an honor and did his best to instill in his staff the motivations to do whatever it took to get the job done. â€Å"Mr. President?† his secretary called out, peering into the office. â€Å"Your call just went through.† Herney waved. â€Å"Thank you.† He reached for his phone. He would have preferred some privacy for this call, but he sure as hell was not going to get any of that right now. Two makeup specialists hovered like gnats, poking and primping at his face and hair. Directly in front of his desk, a television crew was setting up, and an endless swarm of advisers and PR people scurried around the office, excitedly discussing strategy. T minus one hour†¦ Herney pressed the illuminated button on his private phone. â€Å"Lawrence? You there?† â€Å"I'm here.† The NASA administrator's voice sounded consumed, distant. â€Å"Everything okay up there?† â€Å"Storm's still moving in, but my people tell me the satellite link will not be affected. We're good to go. One hour and counting.† â€Å"Excellent. Spirits high, I hope.† â€Å"Very high. My staff's excited. In fact, we just shared some beers.† Herney laughed. â€Å"Glad to hear it. Look, I wanted to call and thank you before we do this thing. Tonight's going to be one hell of a night.† The administrator paused, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain. â€Å"That it will, sir. We've been waiting a long time for this.† Herney hesitated. â€Å"You sound exhausted.† â€Å"I need some sunlight and a real bed.† â€Å"One more hour. Smile for the cameras, enjoy the moment, and then we'll get a plane up there to bring you back to D.C.† â€Å"Looking forward to it.† The man fell silent again. As a skilled negotiator, Herney was trained to listen, to hear what was being said between the lines. Something in the administrator's voice sounded off somehow. â€Å"You sure everything's okay up there?† â€Å"Absolutely. All systems go.† The administrator seemed eager to change the subject. â€Å"Did you see the final cut of Michael Tolland's documentary?† â€Å"Just watched it,† Herney said. â€Å"He did a fantastic job.† â€Å"Yes. You made a good call bringing him in.† â€Å"Still mad at me for involving civilians?† â€Å"Hell, yes.† The administrator growled good-naturedly, his voice with the usual strength to it. It made Herney feel better. Ekstrom's fine, Herney thought. Just a little tired. â€Å"Okay, I'll see you in an hour via satellite. We'll give 'em something to talk about.† â€Å"Right.† â€Å"Hey, Lawrence?† Herney's voice grew low and solemn now. â€Å"You've done a hell of a thing up there. I won't ever forget it.† Outside the habisphere, buffeted by wind, Delta-Three struggled to right and repack Norah Mangor's toppled equipment sled. Once all the equipment was back onboard, he battened down the vinyl top and draped Mangor's dead body across the top, tying her down. As he was preparing to drag the sled off course, his two partners came skimming up the glacier toward him. â€Å"Change of plans,† Delta-One called out above the wind. â€Å"The other three went over the edge.† Delta-Three was not surprised. He also knew what it meant. The Delta Force's plan to stage an accident by arranging four dead bodies on the ice shelf was no longer a viable option. Leaving a lone body would pose more questions than answers. â€Å"Sweep?† he asked. Delta-One nodded. â€Å"I'll recover the flares and you two get rid of the sled.† While Delta-One carefully retraced the scientists' path, collecting every last clue that anyone had been there at all, Delta-Three and his partner moved down the glacier with the laden equipment sled. After struggling over the berms, they finally reached the precipice at the end of the Milne Ice Shelf. They gave a push, and Norah Mangor and her sled slipped silently over the edge, plummeting into the Arctic Ocean. Clean sweep, Delta-Three thought. As they headed back to base, he was pleased to see the wind obliterating the tracks made by their skis. 61 The nuclear submarine Charlotte had been stationed in the Arctic Ocean for five days now. Its presence here was highly classified. A Los Angeles-class sub, the Charlotte was designed to â€Å"listen and not be heard.† Its forty-two tons of turbine engines were suspended on springs to dampen any vibration they might cause. Despite its requirement for stealth, the LA-class sub had one of the largest footprints of any reconnaissance sub in the water. Stretching more than 360 feet from nose to stern, the hull, if placed on an NFL football field, would crush both goalposts and then some. Seven times the length of the U.S. Navy's first Holland-class submarine, the Charlotte displaced 6,927 tons of water when fully submerged and could cruise at an astounding thirty-five knots. The vessel's normal cruising depth was just below the thermocline, a natural temperature gradient that distorted sonar reflections from above and made the sub invisible to surface radar. With a crew of 148 and max dive depth of over fifteen hundred feet, the vessel represented the state-of-the-art submersible and was the oceanic workhorse of the United States Navy. Its evaporative electrolysis oxygenation system, two nuclear reactors, and engineered provisions gave it the ability to circumnavigate the globe twenty-one times without surfacing. Human waste from the crew, as on most cruise ships, was compressed into sixty-pound blocks and ejected into the ocean-the huge bricks of feces jokingly referred to as â€Å"whale turds.†

Essay Issues on Patent and Copyright Laws In China

Issues on Patent and Copyright Laws In China This site contains information on Chinas patent and copyright law. It goes on to discuss some ethical issues about Chinas lack of law enforcement on intellectual property protection. History of Patent System China’s patent system can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty when China began signing international treaties. For example, on August 18, 1903, China and the United States agreed on a treaty on navigation and commerce. The treaty provided for a â€Å"reciprocal patent-granting arrangement whereby citizens of one contracting party could apply for and secure patent rights for their inventions in the other contracting party.†1 After the Qing Dynasty was over thrown in 1911, the†¦show more content†¦Scope of Protection:2 In Article 1 of the Patent Law, it states the right to patent protection for â€Å"inventions-creations.† Article 2 defines inventions-creations as inventions, utility models, and designs. These are also defined by rule 2 of the Implementing Regulations: 1. ‘Invention’ means any new technical solution relating to a product, process, or improvement upon either of these; 2. ‘Utility models’ means any new technical solution in respect to the shape and/or structure of a product fit for practical use; and 3. ‘Design means any new design of a product’s shape, pattern, color, or combination thereof which creates an aesthetic feeling while also being fit for industrial application. The patent rights can be granted to these types of intellectual property as stated above. The patent right for an invention will last for a period of 15 years. Utility models or industrial design patents last for five years. Limitations on Patent:3 According to article 25 of the Patent Law, there are certain exclusions of product and inventions to which the Chinese government refuses to grant a patent right. 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