Hypocrisy In Islam Essays - Kafir, Iman, Jesus In Islam,

Hypocrisy In Islam My subject today is about Hypocrisy. This topic is of extreme importance in our daily lives, as it reflects our behavior, our manners, our faith in Allah, and His teachings. The word Hypocrisy is defined in Webster's dictionaries as: an act or a practice of feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; especially, the false assumption of goodness. Therefore, a hypocrite is a false pretender and dissembler to virtue or piety. In the Islamic terminology, the word Hypocrisy is a substitute for 'Nifaq'. This word Nifaq has been mentioned in the Qur'an thirty-one (31) times in different forms such as: Nifaq; Munafiqoon; Munafiqat; Munafiqeen, and Nifaqan. Dear Muslims: There are some faults prevalent in society that a person may acquire, nurture and establish within himself which affect his personal behavior. The fault of hypocrisy is one of them. Allah hates those people who acquire this fault, and He therefore warns them that their punishment is indeed hell. Allah says in Sura At-Tauba: God hath promised the hypocrites, men and women, and the rejecters of Faith, the fire of Hell; therein shall they dwell; sufficient is it for them: for them is the curse of God, and an enduring punishment. (9:68) Allah has promised the hypocrites a heavy penalty by saying in Sura Nisa: To the hypocrites give the glad tidings that there is for them but a grievous penalty. Yea, to those who take the unbelievers as their leaders rather than the believers (4:138-139) Dear Muslims: One may ask why a person should act as a hypocrite? Or why he should be a hypocrite? The answer could be any of the following: 1. A person who has no faith in Allah, His Messenger, and the Day of Judgment may act as a hypocrite. 2. A person who has a weak faith may be trapped in his daily life to play the role of a hypocrite. 3. A person who lacks confidence in himself/herself may become a hypocrite. 4. A person who lacks security, morally, psychologically, or financially, may be led to be a hypocrite. 5. A person who is conceited, selfish, and who likes himself above all others, may play the game of hypocrisy so as to achieve his personal gains and to satisfy his ego. 6. A person who is not a man unto himself, and whatever he does is seeking assurance of success and gain. Hence, he plays the dirty game of hypocrite. A person who seeks to please everybody even if it demands his cheating, lying or stealing. Allah says in this regard in Sura Al-Munafiqun: When the hypocrites come to thee, they say, 'We bear witness that thou art indeed the Apostle of God.' Yea, God knoweth that thou art indeed His Apostle, and God beareth witness that the hypocrites are indeed liars. (63:1) Dear Muslims: These situations, factors and prerequisites may lead a person to be a hypocrite. The only way to cure this disease from people is that they should have faith in Allah, in His Messenger, Muhammad (pbuh), in the Day of Judgment and in the teachings of Islam. Even if he/she has a weak faith, he should try his/her best to strengthen it, and to enrich it daily. Therefore, it is a matter of having faith (Iman) or having no faith. Nifaq, hence is noticed and observed in those societies, in those families, and those individuals who, either have no faith, or who are weak in their faith. Dear Muslims: The signs of a hypocrite are many among which are the following three signs: 1. He lies whenever he talks. 2. He does not fulfill his commitment. 3. He betrays the trust that he takes. In this regard Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: The signs of a hypocrite are three: when he speaks, he lies; when he gives an agreement, he does not fulfill his commitment; and when he is entrusted, he betrays the trust. (Reported by Abu Hurayrah - Agreed.) For this reason Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) informed us that a hypocrite is a mischievous person. He said: You will find that the worst person is double-faced; he meets one group of people with one side of his face, while another with the other side. (Reported by Abu Hurayra - Agreed.) Dear Muslims: Since this vice is most hated by Allah and His Messenger,

The Quest for Universal Plot Types

The Quest for Universal Plot Types The Quest for Universal Plot Types The Quest for Universal Plot Types By Michael For centuries, writers and critics have tried to put stories into basic categories. Novelist Kurt Vonnegut described eight of them: Man in Hole, Boy Meets Girl, From Bad to Worse, Which Way is Up?, Creation Story, Old Testament, New Testament, and Cinderella. He argued that stories have beautiful shapes which can be drawn on graph paper or fed into computers, rising and falling emotionally over time on a horizontal B-E axis (Beginning/End) and a vertical G-I axis (Good Fortune/Ill Fortune). Vonnegut explained his theory many times and you can watch his explanations online, both the short version and the long version. Six Basic Story Shapes Inspired by Vonneguts ideas, researchers at the the University of Vermonts Computational Story Laboratory and others used various tools, including one they call the Hedonometer. Based on what Vonnegut called emotional arc, this online tool compares each part of a story by tracking what kind of words dominate it: either words such as awful punishment poor blame afraid cried hate or else happy father garden faith home great laugh. Graphing the shapes of 1,327 books from Project Gutenberg, they found six basic plots. Rags to Riches (rise): A poor boy owns nothing but a cat, but it eventually makes him a rich man and Lord Mayor of London (Dick Whittington). SV1 or Mode 1, core emotional arc 1 Examples: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Jungle Book, The Call of the Wild, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Tragedy, or Riches to Rags (fall): The kings advisor hopes to gain power by having his rival executed, but his conspiracy fails and he himself is executed by the king (Haman). -SV1 or Mode 1 negative, core emotional arc 2 Examples: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Beowulf, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Heart of Darkness, The Time Machine, Pygmalion Man in a Hole (fall then rise): Targeted by more powerful gangsters, members of an organized crime family are shot, assassinated, and exiled, but in the end, they make an offer that the other gangsters cant refuse (The Godfather). SV2, core emotional arc 3 Examples: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Through the Looking-Glass, The Prince and the Pauper, The Secret Garden Icarus (rise then fall): An inventor makes wings of wax and feathers and learns to fly with them, but his son rises too close to the sun and then falls. -SV2, core emotional arc 4 Examples: A Christmas Carol, Paradise Lost, Three Men in a Boat, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, The Pilgrim’s Progress (though some of those have happy endings) Cinderella (rise then fall then rise): A poor girl meets the prince at a ball, but she loses her slipper when fleeing at the stroke of midnight. Back home, serving her wicked stepmother again, a royal messenger asks her to try on the lost slipper, and when it fits, the prince marries her. SV3, core emotional arc 5 Examples: Treasure Island, King Solomon’s Mines, Love and Freindship (Jane Austen), The Merchant of Venice Oedipus (fall then rise then fall): An infant prince is found by shepherds on a mountainside, becomes a king, but ends his life as a blind wanderer. (I wont give away the whole story of Oedipus its complex). -SV3, core emotional arc 6 Examples: Frankenstein, A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie), The War of the Worlds, The Turn of the Screw, The Red Badge of Courage Lessons from Story Research Arcs have curves, not jagged lines. Events, circumstances, and cardboard people can change quickly, but real people change gradually. If a character changes suddenly and inexplicably, it isnt believable and it isnt satisfying. When a character is rescued by outside forces, we want him or her to be ready for it, if not to deserve it. We dont want it to happen too quickly or too lightly. We all have problems, so we relate to characters with problems like our own. Even ancient Greeks criticized the overuse of the deus ex machina effect, where just when we are dying to know how they are going to solve their problems, a god is lowered onto the stage with a crane to solve them all for them. The most successful plots may not be the most likable. Professor Ganna Pogrebna from the University of Birmingham determined that the most profitable films, such as The Godfather, have the man in a hole shape. But the most profitable films are not necessarily the most liked (most people dont like bloody murders), but rather the most discussed (as Michael Corleones family rises out a professional hole, he falls into a moral hole). More arcs may be more interesting. The Computational Story Laboratory researchers examined the number of downloads of each book to see which type of story was most popular. The winners included Icarus, â€Å"Cinderella,† and â€Å"Oedipus,† but one of the most downloaded types didnt even have a name: two sequential Man in a hole arcs (SV 4). Thats fall rise fall rise, a pattern that fits fewer books but more popular ones, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan, and Jane Austens Northanger Abbey. But successful books can be more complex than that: Jane Austens Persuasion has the shape of rise fall rise fall rise fall rise (SV7), as does Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. And when I look at Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on the Hedonometer, I see rise fall rise fall rise fall rise fall rise. In Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontà «, I see rise fall rise fall rise fall rise fall rise fall rise. It never rains all the time. Its called an emotional arc for a reason: sometimes its up, sometimes its down. The emotional tone gets pretty low near the end of Christopher Marlowes The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, when Faustus is dragged off to Hell. (I suspect the Hedonometers rise at the end is a false positive.) Yet the play includes comic scenes. Critics used to think they couldnt have been written by Marlowe, but now they think otherwise. Marlowe knew that no audience can stand unabated gloom. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should AvoidWhenever vs. When EverPeople vs. Persons

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

History - Essay Example They loathed anything that was even remotely communist in nature. This feeling was partly fuelled by the innate anti-communist spirit as well as the effect of the vendetta by the politicians. This was a part of the wider policy of containment followed by the United States of America (Addington, 2000). The war ended with the takeover of Saigon by the North Vietnamese in the year 1975 and the cessation of war which was a byproduct of the Case-Church agreement. Military intervention by the Americans was a strategy that was followed with great effect in the Korean War. However, the defeat in the Vietnam put a serious mark on the policy of containment that concentrated on the military intervention as a deterrent (Daum & Gardner, 2003). The war showed a lot of inadequacy on the part of the Special Forces in the country. Even the American marines also failed severely in the war. It put into doubt and criticism on the American military’s policy of attrition. This policy came under hea vy fire as that led to a lot of casualties on the war front. This particular war showcased the vulnerability of the American forces towards guerilla warfare. The Vietnam War caused a widespread imbalance on the industrial front. The factories that would be used for the production of domestic goods were used for the production of military goods. The funds were mainly overseas, that caused the incidence of a weak dollar (Isserman & Bowman, 2003).

Eliezer's Struggle to Keep his Faith in God Essay

Eliezer's Struggle to Keep his Faith in God - Essay Example Elie lost a mother and a small sister during the holocaust that aimed at slaughtering the Jews. Elie confronts the worst in humanity and the worst in him (Bloom, 39). Despite this dilapidating and worse environment, Elie keeps faith in God, though in sceptical on the delay to safeguard His people. It is vital to notice that, Wiesel perception about God changes when nothing happens to rescue people from the hands of the Germans. Wiesel remains sceptical on how God handles situations (Bloom, 38). This change in mind however does not change Elsie’s belief in God’s existence. It is noticeable that, Wiesel believes that, God’s power should be manifested in hard situations especially those facing the Jews. It is imperative to note that, Elie loses faith in God during the de-humanization process that was instituted by the Nazis, but continues to believe that, God exists. This context vividly explains Wiesel’s mind and understanding about God. Wiesel believes that , God is supernatural and no one can kill the dreams about God (Bloom, 34). It is however, paradoxical to realize that, the Nazis murder Elie’s vision about God. Elie laments, â€Å"Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live† it is flamboyant that the tone of anger and indelible grief in this passage reveals. Elie’s deep passionate feelings and believe about God was cleared off by the Nazi in a profound disillusionment (Bloom, 34). Wiesel believes that, the fear of God should be extended and manifested in human beings (Bloom, 56). This concept is vividly revealed in the love and passionate feelings expressed by Elie towards his ailing and weak father. Wiesel believes that God does the same to humankind. Elie is seen not thinking of abandoning his father, but of how to keep from losing him. This is exactly what God does to humanity (Bloom, 34). W iesel believes that, God does not abandon people but sticks with them. This context brings in a paradox, in that many people died and t question that disturbs Wiesel emerges, â€Å"Where is God?† After a dramatic execution of a resistance fighter at the camp, in which the young boy is strangled on the gallows because he is too light to break his neck, Elie’s disillusionment is markedly angrier and bitterer (Bloom, 39). Elie’s indulgence and perception about God tends to change after this incident. It is noteworthy, that Elie doubts God’s presence and undertaking. This is evident by the voice of man asking Elie from the background â€Å"where is God?† This depicts the change of mind and passion in God’s faith (Bloom, 40). Despite what Elie witnesses, a staunch element of trust takes centre stage, particularly, when a background voice answers the question on the presence of God. â€Å"He is here; He is hanging here on this gallows† (Blo om, 36). The happening of these events is attributable to Wiesel’s change in faith about God (Bloom, 39). It is imperative to note that, before the holocaust, Wiesel believed that, God is the sole protector and retaliator of the Jewish people. Wiesel believed that, whatever had happened before was according to God‘s great plans on the Jewish people (Bloom, 41). Wiesel accepted God’s will without further questioning. More over, when things got

Analysing Amazon Website From The Usability Point Of View Dissertation

Analysing Amazon Website From The Usability Point Of View - Dissertation Example Literature Review 3. Research Methodology and Design 3.1 Tools Employed in Evidence Gathering 3.2 Questionnaires 3.3 Interviews 3.4 Observations 4. Implementation 4.1 Visual Appeal of Amazon 4.2 Homepage of Amazon.com 4.3 Log-in Screen 4.4 Shipping to Multiple Addresses 4.5 Learn Availability of Products 4.6 Product Search and Satisfaction 4.7 Reliability and Uptime 4.8 Product Pages 4.9 Integration with International Websites 4.9.1 Co-Branding with Multiple Retailers 4.9.2 The Help Centre 4.9.3 Usability Support for People with Disabilities 5. Evaluation 5.1 The Suggested Solutions 5.2 Limitations of Suggested Solutions 5.3 Works Comparison 6. Conclusion 6.1 Thesis Overview 6.2 Future Works References Appendices 1. Introduction 1.1 Project Overview As the internet has evolved and more industries saw the potential money that could be earned from this platform, shopping and retail companies were not as well left out. An industry that allows internet users to sit in the comfort of thei r own home and use their personal computers to buy goods was created. Throughout the years, there have been various challenges and opportunities that have confronted this industry that ultimately led to the demise of most of them. One company has stood the test of time throughout the various technological and market changes that have confronted e-commerce. That company is amazon.com. From a modest start as an online retailer, it is now a market leader in online retailing. In this project, attention is being paid to the in-depth analysis of amazon.com as an online retail giant, with the primary focus being on the usability of the website from the perspective of the user. This is achieved by analysing existing literature on amazon.com and the conducting of surveys on sample users of the...Limiting factors that affect the usability of amazon.com will be discussed and recommendations made according to the opinions generated from cross-section of the website’s users. As the intern et has evolved and more industries saw the potential money that could be earned from this platform, shopping and retail companies were not as well left out. An industry that allows internet users to sit in the comfort of their own home and use their personal computers to buy goods was created. Throughout the years, there have been various challenges and opportunities that have confronted this industry that ultimately led to the demise of most of them. One company has stood the test of time throughout the various technological and market changes that have confronted e-commerce. That company is amazon.com. From a modest start as an online retailer, it is now a market leader in online retailing. In this project, attention is being paid to the in-depth analysis of amazon.com as an online retail giant, with the primary focus being on the usability of the website from the perspective of the user. This is achieved by analysing existing literature on amazon.com and the conducting of surveys on sample users of the website. Upon these conclusions will be drawn the site’s usability, the challenges that face it and recommendations made on the way forward.

Chemical Bonding Essay

Chemical Bonding Essay Anna Fyodorova All elements are made of atoms which combined with each other form new atoms. They come together in large or small numbers to form very similar or very different atoms and as a result of the combination it is known as a chemical bond. Atoms linked together by bonds have different properties to the original parent atoms. There are only about 100 chemically different types of atoms which make up millions of substances in the world by being combined together. The two main types of chemical bonds the ionic bond in compounds which occurs between a metal and a non-metal and the covalent bond occurring between the two atoms of non-metallic element or between different elements of two atoms. In ionic boding metal and non-metal atoms when combined together loose or gain electrons so they can have a complete outer shell. As an example if sodium which has an electron configuration 2, 8, 1 loses an electron it is left with stable structure neon which has electron configuration 2, 8. However sodium atom still has one more proton than electrons in the orbit around the nucleus. As a result of protons having positive charge the sodium atom has now become a positively charged sodium ion. The electronic structure of sodium ion is written as [2, 8]+. There are atoms that similarly gain electrons during reactions and they gain noble gas structure. For example, Chlorine has electronic structure of 2, 8 , 7. To have the stable electronic structure of argon it needs to gain a single electron becoming 2, 8, 8. Chlorine has now got more electrons than positively charged protons and is known as a chloride ion carrying a single negative charge. The electronic structure of chloride ion is w ritten as [2,8,8]. Ionic bonds are formed by atoms reacting together that need to gain and to loose electrons. For example, when sodium and chlorine react together they need to form stable ions which occur by sodium losing an electron and chlorine gaining one. Below is a lewis diagram that shows an example of ionic bonding by formation of sodium chloride (NaCl). (Brown, 2009) The oppositely charged ions are held together by the strong attraction forces that during ionic bonding form the positive and negative ions. As a result of these bonds between the charged particles a giant structure of ions is formed. To break all the bonds would take a lot of energy as the ions in the giant structure are being held together strongly; therefore the ionic compounds have a high boiling and melting points. Sodium chloride is a good example of an ionic substance. It is known as NaCl or common salt and by being a crystalline solid it has a high boiling point of 1413oC and melting point of 801oC. Below is a diagram of a sodium chloride giant ionic structure. Two non–metal atoms reacting together seek to gain and share electrons to achieve a structure of a noble gas and become stable. The atoms are held together by the electrostatic attraction of the pair of electrons concentrated in between the two nuclei. This is known as a covalent bond. A molecule is formed when atoms are being held together by the covalent bonds. Below is an example of a covalent bond of two hydrogen atoms. (Brown, 2009) Multiple bonds can be formed by atoms sharing more than one electron pair. Two electron pairs or total of four electrons form a double bond and three electron pairs or total of six electrons form a triple bond. An example of multiple bonds is Oxygen and Nitrogen as they both exist as diatomic molecules containing double bonds. Below is an example of single, double and triple bonds. (Brown, 2009) Covalent compounds at a room temperature can be found in a form of a solid, gas or water and in a solution generally do not conduct electricity. Two chlorine atoms form a non-polar covalent bond by being equally shared as the difference in electronegativity between them is zero. Covalent bonds that have unequal shared electrons between the atoms is a polar bond. Polar and nonpolar molecules have the attractive forces between them which determine the strength and properties of these bonds and are known as intermolecular forces. There are three types of intermolecular forces and they play an important role in changes of state in molecular compounds. In covalent bonds the strength of intermolecular forces depends on the size and shape of molecules, which will determine if the bond will have a higher, or lower boiling or melting points. (Goodman, 1960) Dispersion (also known as Van der Waals’) forces exist between all molecules polar or nonpolar and without these forces; nonpolar molecules cannot ever form a solid or a liquid. Molecules with more electrons will generate bigger oscillating and induced dipoles. These produce larger attractive forces between molecules. A dipole-dipole interaction is when a polar molecule will attract another polar molecular by the small ÃŽ ´+ and ÃŽ ´- charges. This gives a weak intermolecular force called a permanent-dipole interaction. Below is an example of intermolecular forces between Hydrogen and chlorine molecules. There is strong intermolecular attraction in hydrogen bonds between a polar hydrogen and one molecule and single pair of electrons on a highly electronegative atom of Fluorine, Oxygen and Nitrogen on a different molecule. (Mikeblaber.org, 2014) There are special properties of water arising from hydrogen bonding. Solid is less dense than liquid, therefore particles in solids are usually packed slightly closer together than in liquids. Relatively strong hydrogen bonds hold water molecules apart in an open lattice structure. Below is an example of an open hydrogen-bonded lattice of ice as ice is less dense than water. Hydrogen bonds have a high melting and boiling point, therefore there’s a relatively strong attraction of H-bonds and H2O. The H-bonds are extra forces, over and above dispersion forces. These extra forces result in higher melting and boiling points than would be expected from just dispersion. When the ice lattice breaks, hydrogen bonds are broken. (Gent and Richie, 2008). Bibliography Brown, C. (2009).Higher level Chemistry. Pearson. Chemwiki.ucdavis.edu, (2014).Introduction to Chemical Bonding Chemwiki. [online] Available at:http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Quantum_Mechanics/09._The_Hydrogen_Atom/Atomic_Theory/Chemical_Compounds/Introduction_to_Chemical_Bonding[Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. Docbrown.info, (2014).Introduction to CHEMICAL BONDING diagrams descriptions What is a chemical bond? Why do atoms bond together? gcse igcse A Level GCE AS A2 O Level chemistry revision notes. [online] Available at:http://www.docbrown.info/page04/4_72bond.htm[Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. Gent, D. and Ritchie, R. (2008).OCR A2 chemistry. Oxford: Heinemann. GOODMAN, C. (1960). Ionic-Covalent Bonding in Crystals.Nature, 187(4737), pp.590-591. Herschbach, D. (2003). Cohesion: A Scientific History of Intermolecular Forces.Physics Today, 56(11), pp.68-68. Mikeblaber.org, (2014).Covalent Bonding. [online] Available at:http://www.mikeblaber.org/oldwine/chm1045/notes/Bonding/Covalent/Bond04.htm[Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]. Www2.hkedcity.net, (2014).Ionic Bond. [online] Available at:http://www2.hkedcity.net/sch_files/a/lsc/lsc-chem/public_html/nss/fundamental/bonding/Ionic/eg1a.htm[Accessed 6 Dec. 2014].

Proud to ba an american :: essays research papers

Proud to be an American I am proud to be an American because I was born here. Four generations back, my ancestors came here from Europe. We have the right to be any religion we choose. Voting is a right of all people. We also have the most liberties and rights of any nation on earth. First of all, our nation is the richest country. We have clothes like T-shirts, jeans, socks and all sorts of other stuff. Afghanistan has sheets that they wrap around themselves. We have all sorts of food. We can go and get food at restaurants and groceries stores. Our nation is highly industrialized. We have the most jobs. Some big industries are Steel Case, General Motors and the Ford Motor Company. There are many, many jobs for people to work. Secondly, why I am proud to be an American is because of our technology. We have computers. They help us in our everyday life. Let's not forget our vehicles. We have cars, trucks, four wheelers, dirt bikes, boats, planes, jets and helicopters. Without these vehicles, we would have a hard time getting around from place to place. NASA sent up a rocket that enabled men to land and walk on the surface of the moon. We were the first nation to accomplish such a mighty task. Thirdly, and one of the most important reasons why I am proud to be an American is because of our veterans. They fought for our country. They saved our lives and defended our freedom. They risked their own lives by fighting to save ours. "Jon, why are you proud to be an American?" "I got out of high school and was asked to join the army. Fortunately I did. And when World War II ended, I had a good feeling because I knew I had accomplished something for our country and people. I was proud to have served my country." Our founding fathers believed so strongly in the liberties and freedoms that we enjoy today, that they were willing to give their lives for the cause.