Lately, I had the opportunity to watch an Iranien movie about the Virgin Mary (may God bless her). Well, I am already acquainted with the story of this great woman, but wacthing the film made me pay attention to the great role that the Virgin Mary played in changing the values and beliefs of the ancient Jewish tradition which considered that women should not contribute to the religious rituals of the church, as the priests used to preach that women should not be allowed to, even, enter the church or participate in the religious ceremonies along with men.

The Virgin Mary has been born in a society which considers women as a big burden on their families, and as second class citizens. The following Qur'anic verse about the birth of Mary inveils the plight of women within the ancient Jewish tradition. God says in the chapter Al Iram (the family of Mary and Prophet Jesus (blessings be upon them all):

"...when the wife of Imran said: 'O my Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, to be dedicated to You. So, accept this from me. Indeed, You hear and know all things. Then when she delivered her, she said: 'O my Lord, I have delivered a female, and God knew best what she delivered, and the male is not like the female, and I have named her Mary, and I seek refuge with you for her and for her children from the expelled Satan."

This verse, clearly, inveils the concerns of the wife of Imran over the birth of Mary. She expected her to be a male, because only a man at that time was allowed to grow up as a scholar or a religious leader. Her fears were well founded, as she wanted to insure for her baby a good position within the Jewish society which used to exclude women from scolarship and religious leadership. God fufilled the prayers of the wife of Imran, when He says in the Holy Qur'an:

So her Lord accepted her with good acceptance and caused her to grow in a good manner and put her under the care of Zechariah. Every time Zechariah entered upon her in the prayer chamber, he found with her provision. He said, "O Mary, from where is this [coming] to you?" She said, "It is from Allah. Indeed, Allah provides for whom He wills without account."

At the age of 16 years old, Mary was a very distinguished girl. Every body loved her for her piety, her constant prayers and fasting, and her goodness to the poor people, as she used to give her usual breakfast to the poors and used to support them both on spiritual and material terms.The convent where Mary was raised (under the care of Prophet Zaccharia) managed by Jewish priests. They hated her so much for her purity and the divine compassion and miracles with which she was endowed: she used to heal the sick people through constant prayers to God. The Jewish priests knew that and their hatred was stemmed from their latent jalousy. I recall an interesting scene in which Mary wasconfronted with one of the Jewish priests. He told her, plainly, that he hated her for the pure, and the divinely-cared-for woman she was. He could not grasp how God has chosen a 16 years old child to have a great status among her people, while he who has spent most of his life in the church did not get the same favour. He did not understand that God chooses whom He willls among his faithful people, because his apparent 'faith' on God was false, while all the church at that time cared for was power and dominion over people. In regard to them, Mary was a true religious woman along with Prophet Zaccharia, who defended her and gave her moral support.

Another wonderful scene and a turning point in the life of the Virgin Mary (may God bless her) was the moment she received a revelation from God, ordering her to enter the church! God says in the Holy Qur'an:

And when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds. O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord and prostrate and bow with those who bow [in prayer]."

This revelation was a clear sign from God to Mary to enter the church and 'bow with those who bow', which did at the amasement and the anger of the Jewish priest. Mary was the first woman to defy traditions and enter the church, where she bowed and prayed to God along with men, as God has inspired her to do. There she got the vilest treatement at the hands of the Jewish priests, who have fiercely beaten her. When Prophet Zaccharia asked her why she trangressed the laws of the church, she told him about the revelation, which he understood and was the first man to believe in her. He stood firm against the Jewish priests to tell that their beating to Mary was a trangression to the laws ofGod. The power scence in the movie along with the Qur'anic verses about Mary and Iram family raised my understanding of her life story from the mere concept of purified woman to the revolutionary figure who had the courage to face the Jewish false traditions and enter the church which was prohibited for women at that time.

It was a feminist movement led by the Virgin Mary and the Prophet Zacchria (by the revelation and support of God) to trangress the false laws of Jewish priesthood, which consider woman as slaves born to serve men. These priests preached false patriarcal beliefs to maintain themselves in power and dominion over the Jewish society which met the despotic laws of the Roman empire. The story of Mary as it was revealed in Qur'an was a unique one, where a 16 years old girl was given the spiritual power to threaten the despotic laws that considered that religious leadership and scolarship is a divine favor which should not encompass women.

God says in the Holy Qur'an in Surah Baqara (190-191):

"And fight in the way of God, those who fight you and do not transgress, for God does not love transgressors. And kill them whenever you find them, and expulse them wherever they expulsed you; and oppression is worse than carnage; and do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque unless they fight you there, and if they fight you, then kill them. Indeed such is the recompense of disbelievers, and if they regress back then God is forgiving and compassionate."

This verse -from Chapter Al Baqara- has always been widely misused by the anti-Islam propagandists so as to prove their silly propaganda that the Qur'an teaches the killing of infidels. Today, I was reading a book about the reasons of the revelation of the Holy Qur'an, and I came accross this verse that triggered so much thoughts among some people lacking the proper understanding of Qur'an, while for some it just paved them the way to justify a subconscious xenophobia. This verse refers to one of the most delicate times in the history of Islam, when the Meccan persecutions against Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) went too far as to prevent them from performing their rituals of pilgrimmage, and which leaded to the Treaty of Al Hudaibia, in which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), with the help and advice of lady Oum Selma, showed a great sense of wisdom.

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) marched from the Medina Monwara towards Mecca accompanied by 1400 Muslims to perform the rituals of pilgrimmage. During their peacefull caravan, Muslims received the information that the 'Meccan disbelievers' were plotting against them as to prevent them from performing their sacred rituals by force. So, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and Muslims stopped in a place called Al Hudaibia and sent them this message:

"We have come on a peaceful and religious mission. We have come only to perform the sacred pilgrimage. We desire neither bloodshed nor war, and we shall be glad if the Meccans agree to a truce for a limited period."

Whenever the Prophet Muhammad used to send a messenger among his community, this latter failed to return, till the third time when the Meccan disblievers of Quraish detained the messenger and spread a rumor that this man was killed as to provoke a war with Muslims. At this time, the Prophet collected all the Muslim people travelling with him and took pledge from them that they will fight with him if any war would be stirred against them, which the Muslims agreed upon willingly. As soon as the disbelievers knew of this pledge, they sent a messenger to negociate with the Prophet and ask peace under the following conditions:

1-Muslim should go back to Mecca without performing pilgrimmage.

2-They would be allowed till the following year under the condition that Muslim are allowed a delay of only three days to leave.

3-Muslim are forbidden to take any Muslim Meccan resident with them.

The Meccan disbelievers used these terms to provoke the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which he accepted by the advice of lady Oum Selma. So the Prophet acceted their terms as he wanted to avoid war and bloodshed, despite the refusal of Omar Ibn Khattab to comply. Once the term of one year was over, and the Muslims pilgrims who prepared themselves to the travel and this with 10.000 people, Muslims feared that the disbelievers breach their the Treaty of Hudaibia, as they were reluctant to fight in this month, which they considered as the sacred month. So, God revealed this verse to the Prophet and gave them permission to fight back if Meccan disblievers hindered them from their religious rituals.

This is the famous treaty of Al Hudaibia, which has been a turning point in Islamic history, and which helped the spread of Islam in the country. So, the reasons of the revelation of this verse is a clear indication that the famous 'killing of the infidels' refered to the disbelievers among the people of Mecca, named Quraish. However, the divine permission to fight was allowed unless the disbelievers breach their treaty, which is quite clear from the Qur'anic verse.

"It is God, Who sends the winds and they raise a cloud, then leads it to a dead land and revives the earth after its death, such is the Resurrection."

(Chapter Fatir:35:9)

This verse relates a great physical and scientific evidence that Qur'an is the true word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It gives a scientific description about how winds and clounds are responsible for producing rain. Most of people know that the sun energy when reflected on the oceans causes vapour to rise through the air to generate clouds.  The wind drives this clouds to move through the air carrying it across the continents.

Another scientific evidence is hinted in this verse about the rain being what stirs the revival of the earth. In 1827, a British scientist stated that the drops of rain when it flows on the soil causes some kind of movements of its particles, because the rain causes an eletric mass when it mingles with soil, that its particles began to move away from each other to leave room to the flow of water among the parts of the soil and help to the growth of vegetables and herbs.

"And you see the earth motionless, and when We pour water on it, it moves, flowers, and grows of each joyfull pair" (Chapter Al Haj)

The earth is descibed as dead mass stirred by water rain to creat plants and flowers of every kind. See how Qur'anic verses devellop each other when the 'motionless' earth is described as comming out of death. God describes the resurrection as a phyiscal process which is within the grasp of human understanding.

If we witness the resurrection in this physical world, why should we not witness it at the end of time! God says in the Holy Qur'an:

O People, if you should be in doubt about the Resurrection, then indeed, We created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clinging clot, and then from a lump of flesh, formed and unformed-that We may show you. And We settle in the wombs whom We will for a specified term, then We bring you out as a child, and then that you may reach your maturity. And among you is he who is taken in death, and among you is he who is returned to the most decrepit age so that he knows, after [once having] knowledge, nothing. And you see the earth motionless, and when We pour wateron it, it moves, flowers, and grows of each joyfull pair" (Chapter Al Haj)

Traditional and common beliefs held, and for long, that the external signs of anxiety are reliable indicators of a person's truthfulness or deceitfulness. However, our common experiences have shown that this is not always the case. There are, indeed, people who can tell lies without showing any external signs of anxiety. It is quite simple; when lying becomes a currently repeated action, the signs of anxiety would not be triggered any more. So, would it be wise to, always, refer to external signs as mere reliable sources of information? Shouldn't this trigger us to learn more about the components of our brain and see its different fuctions from breathing, speech and movement to moral reasoning and free-will? A scientist in biological pyscology (I forgot his name) stated that a truthful answer is automatic, but a deceitful one requires always something more; a double effort to proveit.Magnetic resonance imaging techniques, called as lie detectors, which we have been introduced to lately, have indicated that 'the act of lying triggers activities in the brain that sends blood to the prefrontal cortex (the area behind the forhead,or called as the forelock), which controls several psychological processes, and is labelled as the center of decision-making and moral reasoning.The prefrontal cortex or forelock is called in Qur'anic terminology as the 'Nasiya',and it has been refered to in Qur'an as the area of lies and moral reasoning and there are many verses in Qur'an refering to this area of the brain. For this reason, I will cite the surah of al Alaq, one of the Meccan verses which are short but are embedded with numerous scientific data pushing more to logical reasoning about faith. God says in this Surah:

"...No, indeed Man trangresses, as he sees himself as self-sufficient. Indeed, to your lord is the return. Have you seen the one who forbids a servant when he prays? Have you seen if he is upon guidance and enjoins righteousness? Have you seen if he denies (the truth) and turns away? Does he not know that God sees? No, if he does not desist, We will, surely, drag him by the forelock.A lying, sinning, forelock.Let him call his associates, We will call the angels of Hell. No, do not obey him, but prostrate, and draw near (to God)."

God refers in this part of the Surah to the well known personality of Abu Jahl, one of the unbelievers and oppressors of Muslim communities during the beginning of the call to Islam in Mecca. So, these verses have been revealed as a response to his corrupted and sinful character. What is striking in this Surah is that God refers to the forelock of this person as a lying and sinful one, which triggers the question: why does God refer to the forelock and not to the person himself as sining and lying? Most traditional commentators of Qur'an have stated that the forelock is metaphore of the person himself. However, with the advent of modern biological pyscology it has been stated that the forelock (Nasiya) or as they call "the prefrontal cortex" is an area of the brain which is responsible for most of our psycological responses, decision-making and moral reasoning (sinning forelock). Look, Qur'anicterms are simple and clear: a lying, sinning forelock, which means that this part of the brain is the one responsible for lies-telling, and moral reasoning.