Anas Imtiaz

Contraction and Expansion of Heart

// September 22nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Thought Provokers

One of the most, or perhaps the most astonishing organ of the human body is the heart. It’s working has always been perplexing even for the great biologists and the scientists in this field. As of now, we know that the hurt is responsible for the pumping of blood. We also know how this function is achieved i.e. by contraction and expansion of heart. This cycle of contraction and expansion os commonly known as beat. The million dollar question that hasn’t been answered is that HOW does the heart beat?

The WHY’s of various human organs are nicely understood but the HOW’s are mostly unknown.

A couple of days I was listening to an Islamic lecture by Shaikh Hamza Yusuf. Now this is one of the beauties of Ramadan that a person is naturally inclined towards religious activities. Anyway, this lecture was titled “Putting the Heart into Worship.” He addressed this question of the human heart which caught my ears.

So, the how does the heart contract and expand?

If we look at the 99 names of Allah, two of His names are:

Al-Qabid

* The One who constricts the sustenance.
* The Contractor, The Restrainer, the Recipient.

Al-Basit

* The One who expands and widens.
* The Expander, He who expands

SubhanAllah!

The answer was always there, revealed to us and the humanity thousands of years ago.

I recommend all readers to listen to this lecture.

Do Blind People Dream?

// July 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Thought Provokers

A nine-year old kid left me startled today by asking this question. I never pondered over this, nor do I know anything about the medical explanation of dreams. I thought for a moment, no plausible explication formed in my mind and I simply answered I don’t know. The thought process didn’t stop there. I continued thinking on my way back to home and wondered IF they did dream and saw some visual pictures, they couldn’t even recognize it.

Back at home, I used my best friend (Google) to answer this question. Many interesting search results popped up, all ending up in similar conclusions. I’m quoting one the best results among the many good ones.

Dreams are a universal feature of the human mind. Carl Jung even believed that visions in our dreams offer glimpses into universal archetypes, instinctive primordial images deriving from a collective unconscious built into the very structure of the human brain. You might think, then, that even blind people could tap into this instinctive pool of primordial images and see them in their dreams. However, while people who are blind certainly do dream, their dreams are visual only to the extent that they can see, or could see before their blindness, in their waking life. People who are blind from birth have dreams that are primarily auditory, with their other intact senses participating to about the same degree that they do in a sighted person’s dreams. They do not, however, dream in visual images. People who are legally blind but are able to, say, see blurs of movement, light, and color would have a visual dimension to their dreams matching what they see when they’re awake.

There is no evidence that the unconscious (or subconscious) mind holds any sort of store of visual symbols independently of the brain’s development of systems for interpreting visual input through visual stimulation from birth on. Without that kind of stimulation, the brain has no more ability to imagine images than the blind person would have to see images while awake.

In An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks tells the remarkable story of a 50-year-old man who, after being blind since shortly after birth, has his eyesight restored by a cataract operation. When the bandages are removed, the man sees something, but he doesn’t know what it is or what it means. A blur of movement. A vague pattern of color. A contrast of darkness. He is aware of novel sensations, to be sure, but they are confusing and hard to interpret. He might be inclined to ignore those sensations altogether if people didn’t press him to focus on them, to understand them, to relate them to what he perceives through his other familiar senses.

Source: ScienceIQ

Power Abuse

// June 27th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Thought Provokers

This news article is not something new. It happens everyday in different parts of Pakistan. The person who said NO is suspended. The event managed to make it to the last page among the least important news items. Why not the main page? Why not demonstrate in favor of the police officer? Why, why, why?!! This is worse in fact. Not only is the office holder abusing his power but his whole family is doing it as well. A collective abuse of power!

Earthrise and Earthset Videos (Truly Awesome!)

// June 25th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Thought Provokers

Destiny

// June 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Thought Provokers

To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation – Paulo Coehlo

Intuition

// June 9th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Thought Provokers

Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

Ambition & Success

// June 4th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Thought Provokers

Ambition is the enemy of success. Isn’t it??

Theory & Practice

// May 31st, 2008 // No Comments » // Thought Provokers

In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they never are.

Pain

// April 23rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Thought Provokers

Winning horses never know why they run; they run because of beats and pain. Life is a race and God is your rider. So if you’re in pain, then think God wants you to win.

Forwarded by Sumra Zafar

Why Beautiful Women Marry Less Attractive Men

// April 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Thought Provokers

Women seeking a lifelong mate might do well to choose the guy a notch below them in the looks category. New research reveals couples in which the wife is better looking than her husband are more positive and supportive than other match-ups.

Read the complete news/report at the link below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080410/sc_livescience/whybeautifulwomenmarrylessattractivemen