Do you know that God exists?

Do You Know That God Exists?

Can You Have Faith in God?

I think I can. There is an explanation I can give to clarify my belief in God. I'd like to share it with you. 

Argument for Existence of God

God is the self-existent being which all dependent beings depend on it. You may doubt the existence of such a self-existent thing. But, there is a conclusive logical argument that proves its existence. The following paragraphs explain the proof. 

If there is something, then, there is a self-existent being. It is because, if there is something, it is either self-existent, or dependent on the self-existent. In either case, there is a self-existent.

We can explain it in the way that:

If the existing thing is a self-existent being, then, itself is self-existent and the self-existent exists.

If it is not a self-existent being, then, it depends on a self-existent being, because, if it doesn't, then, there will be either a chain or a circle. Both the chain and the circle are impossible. As the only result, it does depend on a self-existent being and the self-existent being exists.

The conclusion is that there is a self-existent being; because something that exists is either itself self-existent or depends on an existing self-existent other than itself.

The impossibility of the chain and the circle is self-evident.

A chain means an infinite series of depending things, in which, each posterior member depends on its anterior member without being ended in a self-existent beginning.

A circle means a dependency cycle, in which, "a" depends on "b" while "b" itself depends on "a" either directly or by means of one or more members that go in between them. 

It is not a dependency like one is between two things leaning towards each other. It is something like if you were your father's father. You see that it is undoubtedly impossible.

The conclusion is that there is a self-existent being. This self-existent being is the God which Islam is trying to introduce.

I wrote this post as an answer to atheism fundamental argument. Their fundamental argument against God's existence is that there is no evidence nor proof for God's existence. I wrote this to say that there is something to say.

Click here to see their arguments.

Now, it's your turn. Tell me what you think!

MD From Oxford Dictionary

Moby Dick

From Oxford Dictionary

Moby Dick, n.

[‘ Something likened to Moby Dick (the great white whale central to Herman Melville's novel), esp. in being very large, important, or impressive.’]

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌməʊbɪ ˈdɪk/,  U.S. /ˌmoʊbi ˈdɪk/

Etymology: <  Moby Dick, the name of the whale in Herman Melville's 1851 novel of the same name.

  Something likened to Moby Dick (the great white whale central to Herman Melville's novel), esp. in being very large, important, or impressive.

In quot. 1986 used humorously in place of whale (see whale n. 5c).

a1974  A. Sexton 45 Mercy Street (1977) 62 A man, a Moby Dick of a man, a swimmer going up and down in his brain.

1986  J. Wilson Amber ii. 27, I shall eat cream cakes and meet lots of lovely new men and get asked to all sorts of exciting new clubs and have a Moby Dick of a time.

1990 Economist 24 Mar. 111/3 Minnows who want to become corporate Moby Dicks might take a leaf out of Compaq's book.

1994 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 26 June 30/2 Where is Moby Dick? Whale watchers will be out in force next weekend.

2000 Scotsman 24 June 16/7 Airbus..[announced] the construction of..the world's biggest passenger plane... Who..thought we would now welcome the news that in 2004 the minnows of the sky would be joined by Moby Dick?

Visit the source

Lesson 4: The Lowercase Manuscript Letters

Lesson 4

The Lowercase Manuscript Letters

Here are the lowercase manuscript letters.

 

The images are copied from Hand Writing for Kids.

Next lesson

Previous lesson

Table of contents

Lesson 3: The Uppercase Manuscript Letters

Lesson 3

The Uppercase Manuscript Letters

The images below show how to draw each one of the letters. Although, the wasy shown are not the only ways, but they are the easiest ways we can learn and teach our kids or students to draw their handwritings

The images are copied from Hand Writing for Kids.

Next lesson

Previous lesson

Table of contents

Lesson 2: Writing The English Letters

Lesson 2

Writing The English Letters

Typing and handwriting

Like all other languages writing systems, there are two ways to put the English Letters on the paper. One, that is most often used, is to type and print. Another one, which is rarely used today, is to write them using pen and paper. This way is called handwriting.

Read more

Manuscript and cursive

Handwriting of the English Letters has two methods. One is known as the manuscript handwriting method. In this method, one writes letters which look like the printed letters. The second method is the cursive handwriting. Letters written in this way are often joint together. 

Read more

Capital and small letters

In both methods, the capital letters are different from the small letters. As a result, there are four types of the hand written letters we may like to learn. Two types of them are the manuscript capital and small letters. The other two are the cursive capital and small letters. 

Read more

Uppercase and Lowercase letters

One more thing we should know, is that the capital letters are sometimes called UPPERCASE letters and the small letters are referred to, as LOWERCASE letters.

Read more

Next lesson

Previous lesson

Lessons table of contents

Lesson 1: The English Alphabet

Lesson 1

The English Alphabet

English alphabet has 26 letters. 

A a   B b   C c   D d   E e   F f   G g   H h   I i   J j   K k   L l   M m   N n   O o   P p   Q q   R r   S s   T t   U u   V v   W w   X x   Y y   Z z

American English speakers pronounce the letters R and Z in a different way from the way British English speakers do.

Listen to American R r.

Listen to American Z z.

Click here to listen and learn their names all at once.

Next lesson

Lessons table of contents

Eid al-fitr or the fast breaking festivity

Eid al-fitr or the fast breaking festivity

Structure of the phrase

"Eid al-fitr", "Eid ul-fitr" or "Id al fitr" are deferent spellings of the Arabic phrase ( عید الفطر). The phrase is in the Arabic genitive structure in which the first noun belongs to the second one, in a particular way. Keeping this in mind, if we give the phrase an English structure, it will be "the fitr eid". So, the Arabic phrase "Eid al-fitr" is equal to the English phrase "the fitr eid".

Meaning of the phrase

In terms of its meaning, the phrase means "the festivity of braking fast" or "the fast breaking festivity". It is because the word "eid" means "festivity" and the word "fitr" means "breaking fast". The prefix "al-" or "l-" (in the "ul-" spelling) in Arabic, functions as a definite article, like "the", in English. The phrase's structure is also a linguistic element. In English, the meaning of this form is expressed by the possessive "-'s" or "of" which expresses the genitive relationship between the two nouns. It means that in English, there are two possibilities to express the meaning of this phrase. One is the genitive phrase "the fast breaking festivity" and the other one is the "of" phrase "the festivity of breaking fast"

Read more

Eid al-fitr, Wikipedia

Eid Mubarak, Wikipedia

Eid al-fitr

Eid, Oxford Dictionaries Online

Eid thesaurus, MACMILLAN Dictinary

Eid, Collins English Dictionary

Learning English in childhood

Learning English in childhood

Learning English in childhood is the best way. It is the natural method of human language development. One who learns a language in this way it becomes a real part of his personality. They absorb the nature of the language. They are the speakers who use the language without translating it. This way, they become the native speakers of their languages. This method can be carried out in many ways.

Most of the children raised in this way grow up in a monolingual environment. By this, I mean an environment in which, both the home and the society surrounding the home are speaking just one language. In such a situation, the child faces nothing but the shared language. The family, the public, the media and so on, do all give the child the same language.

Sometimes, the environment is bilingual or even multilingual. For example, the family language may be Turkish, while, the general public may speak Persian. In such an environment, if the home language is kept Turkish, the child will surely grow up bilingual. The surprising fact about such a child - as we see - is that s/he will speak both languages as a native speaker.

Nowadays, there may be families in which the parents may not share the same native language. Consider a couple which one of them is a Turk - for example - and the other one is an Arab. In such a family, if they speak to their child in their mother tongues, the child will grow up with both languages. When the kid is grown up, s/he will speak both Arabic an Turkish without any problems. There is even more; if they grow up their child in Tehran - for instance -, the child will come up a trilingual. S/he will be able to speak Persian as well as his or her parents languages.

So far, all what we said was that we considered the environment, the parents or at least one parent to be natively speaking a given language. We can raise a kid bilingually even if we are not native speakers. 

We can teach our kids the language we have learnt as a second or as a foreign language. I have two children. When the second one was born, we decided to raise him bilingual. We adopted the OPOL method. I spoke to him all in English and the others in Persian. Now he is four. The English language is his first language. 

Once, we had a native English speaker visitor from Australia who was originally from Britain. When he first saw him, he thought the kid was born and grown up in London. It was difficult for him to believe the child was raised in a non-English environment. He said "he was really surprised by the boy's London accent". 

These ways of learning English are the best ways. They give the learners the opportunity to develop the most possible high-quality English. Among them, the last one provides the learners also with some unique results, if it is carried out in an appropriate way.

 

How to talk about age?

How to talk about age?

The word "age" can be a noun. In this case, it means "the number of years someone has lived or something has existed". (LDOCE)

In English, we talk about age in two ways; in question and in answering someone's question.

Asking someone's age

When we question, we ask about someone's age "how old are they?". To do this, we use (how + old + be + subject). In this case we can ask:

How old am I?

How old are you?

How old is he? 

How old is she?

How old is it?

How old are we?

How old are you?

How old are they?

How old is John?

How old are Simon and Jane?

Answering Questions

To answer the question, there are two possibilities. 

One is:

subject + be + number.

Another possibility is:

subject + be + number + year/years + old.

In the first case we say:

I am twenty, or I am 20, (in writing).

In the second one, we say:

He is fifteen years old, or he is 15 years old (in writing).

Mor examples

I am fifteen, or I am 15.

Their baby is one, or their baby is 1, or you can say: Their baby's just one year old.

My grandfather was eighty, when he passed away. We can write: my grandfather was 80.

Read more

"At the age of seven, a young boy and his family were forced out of their home. The boy had to work to support his family. At the age of nine, his mother passed away. When he grew up, the young man was keen to go to law school, but had no education.

At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. At 23, he ran for state legislature and lost. The same year, he went into business. It failed, leaving him with a debt that took him 17 years to repay. At 27, he had a nervous breakdown.

Two years later, he tried for the post of speaker in his state legislature. He lost. At 31, he was defeated in his attempt to become an elector. By 35, he had been defeated twice while running for Congress. Finally, he did manage to secure a brief term in Congress, but at 39 he lost his re-election bid.

At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 42, he was rejected as a prospective land officer. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. Two years later, he lost the vice presidential nomination. At 49, he ran for Senate and lost again.

At 51, he was elected the President of the United States of America.

The man in question: Abraham Lincoln."

– Author Unknown

The Most Important English Word Related to RAMADAN

FAST

Prologue

The most important English word related to the holy month RAMADAN is the word "fast". We say; "we fast", "we are fasting", "she doesn't fast, when she is so", "most children like to pretend to fast", etc.

But remember that the word "fast" is a multi-class English word. It means that it can be either a noun, an adjective, a verb, or an adverb. Each one of its four classes has been defined in the first volume of The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, page 920. Only, when it is a verb or a noun it can be related to the holy Ramadan.

"Fast" as a verb

Meaning

In the case "fast" is a verb, it means "to eat no food for a period of time". MWD defines it as: 

1 : to abstain from food,

or

2 : to eat sparingly or abstain from some foods.

Etymology

Dictionary.com explains its etymology as following: "fast O.E. fæstan "to fast" (as a religious duty), from P.Gmc. *fastejan (cf. O.Fris. festia, O.H.G. fasten, O.N. fasta), from the same root as fast (adj.). The original meaning was "hold firmly," and the sense evolution is via "firm control of oneself," to "holding to observance" (cf. Goth. fastan "to keep, observe," also "to fast"). Presumably the whole group is a Gmc. translation of M.L. observare "to fast." Related: Fasted; fasting."

Explanation of the etymology

This etymology explains that the word "fast" comes from the Old English word "fæstan" which means "to fast" (as a religious duty). 

Then the word "fæstan" comes from Proto-Germanic (language) word *fastejan.

In terms of its origin, the word "fæstan" is the same as the Old Frisian language word "festia", Old High German word "fasten", Old Norse "fasta", from the same root as "fast" (adj.). The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary also equalises them; as it writes: "fast /fɑːst/ v. [OE fæstan = OFris. festia, (M)Du. vasten, OHG fastēn, (G fasten), ON fasta, Goth. fastan, f. Gmc.]". (V:1. P:920)

The original meaning was "hold firmly," and the sense evolution is via "firm control of oneself," to "holding to observance"  ( = when someone obeys a law or does something because it is part of a religion, custom, or ceremony

observance). It is the same as the Gothic word "fastan" which means "to keep, observe," also "to fast". 

Finally it says; presumably the whole group is a Germanic translation of Medieval Latin "observare" meaning "to fast."