SCIENCE FOR CHILDREN

GLOBAL WARMING

We cannot live without energy. We need food for energy. We cannot cook our food without energy like gas or firewood or coal. To go from one place to another we need petrol or diesel. There are factories that need more energy to run machines. They use petrol, diesel, or coal. When we burn gas, firewood, petrol, or diesel we get two things - energy and carbon dioxide. We use energy. What do we do with carbon dioxide? We don't use it. We allow it to go and mix with atmosphere. The more we use energy, the more carbon dioxide is added to our atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is a chemical. All chemicals react. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorb heat from the sun and reacts. It reacts by radiating more heat. The more carbon dioxide we send, the more heat we add to the atmosphere. The atmosphere of the globe becomes warm. Every year our globe becomes warmer and warmer.

What will happen if global warming continues? Global warming will melt more ice. More water will be added to sea. Sea level will rise. All low-lying lands will be submerged into water. People living on the coastal regions will have to move to safer places. Desert area are will increase. New deserts will decrease agricultural land.

Many animals and birds have already moved to other places because of these new desert-like conditions. All animals cannot move to new places so easily. Such animals will disappear. Trees and plants cannot move like animals or birds. Expanding deserts will make them disappear from this earth.

What can we do to reduce global warming? The easiest way is to plant more trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide to produce their food. We want oxygen. Trees and plants take carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. There is a balance in this beautiful nature. When we destroy it, we destroy ourselves.

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GREENHOUSE EFFECT

The sun is our primary energy source. The Sun is a burning star. It is so hot that we can feel its heat from over 150 million kilometers away. Its rays enter our atmosphere and heat our planet. About one third of this solar energy is reflected back into the universe. The shimmering glaciers, water and other bright surfaces
reflect back this heat. One third of this heat is sent back to atmosphere. Two thirds, however, are absorbed by the Earth, thus warming land, oceans, and atmosphere.



The heat that is sent back out into space is stored in the atmosphere. This process is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, the Earth’s average temperature would be a chilling -18 degrees Celsius, even despite the sun’s constant energy supply.



In a world like this, life on Earth would probably have never emerged from the sea. Thanks to the greenhouse effect, however, heat emitted from the Earth is trapped in the atmosphere, providing us with a comfortable average temperature of 14 degrees.

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GREENHOUSE EFFECT


Some of the activities of man also produce greenhouse gases. These gases keep increasing in the atmosphere. The balance of the greenhouse gases changes and this has effects on the whole of the planet.

Burning fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas - releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Cutting down and burning trees also produces a lot of carbon dioxide.

A group of greenhouse gases called the chlorofluorocarbons, - which are usually called CFCs, because the other word is much too long! - have been used in aerosols, such as hairspray cans, fridges and in making foam plastics. They are found in small amounts in the atmosphere. They are dangerous greenhouse gases because small amounts can trap large amounts of heat.

Because there are more and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more heat is trapped which makes the Earth warmer. This is known as GLOBAL WARMING.

A lot of scientists agree that man's activities are making the natural greenhouse effect stronger. If we carry on polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, it will have very dangerous effects on the Earth.



THE EFFECTS

With more heat trapped on Earth, the planet will become warmer, which means the weather all over Earth will change. For example, summers will get hotter, and winters too. This may seem a good idea, but the conditions we are living in are perfect for life, and a large rise in temperature could be terrible for us and for any other living thing on Earth.

At the moment, it is difficult for scientists to say how big the changes will be and where the worse effects will occur.

The Weather



In different parts of the world, the effects of weather will be different, some places will become drier and others will be wetter. Although most areas will be warmer, some areas will become cooler. There may be many storms, floods and drought, but we do not know which areas of the world will be affected.

All over the world, these weather changes will affect the kind of crop that can be grown. Plants, animals and even people may find it difficult to survive in different conditions.

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Weather
Weather describes whatever is happening outdoors in a given place at a given time. Weather is what happens from minute to minute. The weather can change a lot within a very short time. For example, it may rain for an hour and then become sunny and clear. Weather is what we hear about on the television news every night. Weather includes daily changes in precipitation, barometric pressure, temperature, and wind conditions in a given location. What is your weather like today?

Climate
Climate describes the total of all weather occurring over a period of years in a given place. This includes average weather conditions, regular weather sequences (like winter, spring, summer, and fall), and special weather events (like tornadoes and floods). Climate tells us what it's usually like in the place where you live. San Diego is known as having a mild climate, New Orleans a humid climate, Buffalo a snowy climate, and Seattle a rainy climate. How would you describe the climate where you live?

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CAN WE CHANGE CLIMATE

It may seem hard to believe that people can actually change the Earth’s climate. But scientists think that the things people do that send greenhouse gases into the air are making our planet warmer.

Once, all climate changes occurred naturally. However, during the Industrial Revolution, we began altering our climate and environment through agricultural and industrial practices. The Industrial Revolution was a time when people began using machines to make life easier. It started more than 200 years ago and changed the way humans live. Before the Industrial Revolution, human activity released very few gases into the atmosphere, but now through population growth, fossil fuel burning, and deforestation, we are affecting the mixture of gases in the atmosphere.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the need for energy to run machines has steadily increased. Some energy, like the energy you need to do your homework, comes from the food you eat. But other energy, like the energy that makes cars run and much of the energy used to light and heat our homes, comes from fuels like coal and oil – fossil fuels. Burning these fuels releases greenhouse gases.

When Do You Send Greenhouse Gases into the Air?

Whenever you ...
Watch TV

Use the Air Conditioner

Turn on a Light

Use a Hair Dryer

Ride in a Car

Play a Video Game

Listen to a Stereo

Wash or Dry Clothes

Use a Dish Washer

Microwave a Meal




... you are helping to send greenhouse gas into the air.

To perform many of these functions, you need to use electricity. Electricity comes from power plants. Most power plants use coal and oil to make electricity. Burning coal and oil produces greenhouse gases.

Other things we do send greenhouse gases into the air too;

The trash that we send to landfills produces a greenhouse gas called methane. Methane is also produced by the animals we raise for dairy and meat products and when we take coal out of the ground. Whenever we drive or ride in a car, we are adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. And, when factories make the things that we buy and use everyday, they too are sending greenhouse gases into the air.

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Climate change may be a big problem, but there are many little things we can do to make a difference. If we try, most of us can do our part to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we put into the atmosphere. Many greenhouse gases come from things we do every day. As we have learned, these greenhouse gases trap energy in the atmosphere and make the Earth warmer.

Driving a car or using electricity is not wrong. We just have to be smart about it.Some people use less energy by carpooling. For example, four people can ride together in one car instead of driving four cars to work. Here are some additional ways you can help make the planet a better place!

Read
Learning about the environment is very important. There are many good books that will help you learn. To get started, ask a teacher or a librarian for some suggestions. You also can look at the Links page to find other good web sites with information about the environment and climate change.


Save Electricity
Whenever we use electricity, we help put greenhouse gases into the air. By turning off lights, the television, and the computer when you are through with them, you can help a lot.

Bike, Bus, and Walk
You can save energy by sometimes taking the bus, riding a bike, or walking.

Talk to Your Family and Friends
Talk with your family and friends about climate change. Let them know what you've learned.

Plant Trees
Planting trees is fun and a great way to reduce greenhouse gases. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the air.

Recycle
Recycle cans, bottles, plastic bags, and newspapers. When you recycle, you send less trash to the landfill and you help save natural resources, like trees, oil, and elements such as aluminum.

When You Buy, Buy Cool Stuff
There are lots of ways we can improve the environment. One of the ways to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that we put into the air is to buy products that don't use as much energy. By conserving energy, we help reduce climate change and make the Earth a better place. Some products – like certain cars and stereos – are made specially to save energy.

Some Things to Think About
Did you know that you can help the environment if you buy recyclable products instead of non-recyclable ones? Look for the recycle mark – three arrows that make a circle – on the package. Recyclable products are usually made out of things that already have been used. It usually takes less energy to make recycled products than to make new ones. The less energy we use, the better.

Solar Energy
Imagine that it's a hot summer day. You put a scoop of ice cream on the sidewalk, and it melts. Why? Well, you probably know that the sun causes the ice cream to melt. But you may not know that the sun produces solar energy. Solar energy is a fancy way of saying "energy that comes from the sun." Solar energy can be used to heat homes, buildings, water, and to make electricity. Today, more than 200,000 houses in the United States take advantage of the sun's energy.

Cars
Cars are an important part of life for most people. But cars also cause pollution and release a lot of greenhouse gases into the air. Fortunately, there are some cars that are better for the environment. These cars can travel longer on a smaller amount of gasoline. They don't pollute as much, either. Using these kinds of cars can help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the air.

ENERGY STAR®
Many things, like computers, TVs, stereos, and VCRs, have special labels on them. The label says "Energy" and has a picture of a star. Products with the ENERGY STAR® label are made to save energy. Buying products with ENERGY STAR® labels will help protect the environment.

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THE WATER CYCLE

Water on Earth is always changing. Its repeating changes make a cycle. As water goes through its cycle, it can be a solid (ice), a liquid (water), or a gas (water vapor). Ice can change to become water or water vapor. Water can change to become ice or water vapor. Water vapor can change to become ice or water.



How do these changes happen? Adding or subtracting heat makes the cycle work. If heat is added to ice, it melts. If heat is added to water, it evaporates. Evaporation turns liquid water into a gas called water vapor.

If heat is taken away from water vapor, it condenses. Condensation turns water vapor into a liquid. If heat is taken away from liquid water, it freezes to become ice.

The water cycle is called the hydrologic cycle. In the hydrologic cycle, water from oceans, lakes, swamps, rivers, plants, and even you, can turn into water vapor. Water vapor condenses into millions of tiny droplets that form clouds. Clouds lose their water as rain or snow, which is called precipitation. Precipitation is either absorbed into the ground or runs off into rivers. Water that was absorbed into the ground is taken up by plants. Plants lose water from their surfaces as vapor back into the atmosphere. Water that runs off into rivers flows into ponds, lakes, or oceans where it evaporates back into the atmosphere.

The cycle continue
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THE ORIGIN OF THE SEA

In popular language, "ocean" and "sea" are used interchangeably. Today's seas are the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans and the Antarctic waters or seas.
Scientists believe that the seas are as much as 500 million years old because animals that lived then occur as fossils in rocks which once were under ancient seas. There are several theories about the origin of the seas, but no single theory explains all aspects of this puzzle. Many earth scientists agree with the hypothesis that both the atmosphere and the oceans have accumulated gradually through geologic time from some process of "degassing" of the Earth's interior. According to this theory, the ocean had its origin from the prolonged escape of water vapor and other gases from the molten igneous rocks of the Earth to the clouds surrounding the cooling Earth. After the Earth's surface had cooled to a temperature below the boiling point of water, rain began to fall and continued to fall for centuries. As the water drained into the great hollows in the Earth's surface, the primeval ocean came into existence. The forces of gravity prevented the water from leaving the planet.

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SOURCES OF THE SALTS...
Sea water has been defined as a weak solution of almost everything. Ocean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, the wearing down of mountains, and the dissolving action of rains and streams which transported their mineral washings to the sea. Some of the ocean's salts have been dissolved from rocks and sediments below its floor. Other sources of salts include the solid and gaseous materials that escaped from the Earth's crust through volcanic vents or that originated in the atmosphere.

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WHY OCEANS ARE ALWAYS BLUE

There are several theories:
Blue wavelengths are absorbed the least by the deep ocean water and are scattered and reflected back to the observer’s eye
Particles in the water may help to reflect blue light
The ocean reflects the blue sky

Most of the time the ocean appears to be blue because this is the color our eyes see. But the ocean can be many other colors depending upon particles in the water, the depth of the water, and the amount of skylight.

The colors we see depend upon the reflection of the visible wavelengths of light to our eyes. The Franklin Institute provides a good explanation of how we see color at http://www.fi.edu/color/color.html.

Wavelengths of light pass through matter differently depending on the material’s composition. Blue wavelengths are transmitted to greater depths of the ocean, while red wavelengths are absorbed quickly. Water molecules scatter blue wavelengths by absorbing the light waves, and then rapidly reemitting the light waves in different directions. That is why there are mostly blue wavelengths that are reflected back to our eyes.

Sometimes oceans look green. This may be because there is an abundance of plant life or sediment from rivers that flow into the ocean. The blue light is absorbed more and the yellow pigments from plants mix with the blue light waves to produce the color green.

Sometimes parts of the oceans will look milky brown after a storm passes. This is because winds and currents associated with the storm churn up sand and sediment from the rivers that lead into the oceans.

The ocean may also reflect the blue sky. However this is prominent only at relatively low angles and when the water is smooth.

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Water bodies

That's because more than two-thirds of our planet's surface is covered by water. We have many different names for the areas of water that cover the earth. We call them ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, seas, and oceans. The biggest ones are the oceans, and there are five of them: the Atlantic,. . . "

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THE ROCK CYCLE


Rock Cycle is a group of changes. Igneous rock can change into sedimentary rock or into metamorphic rock. Sedimentary rock can change into metamorphic rock or into igneous rock. Metamorphic rock can change into igneous or sedimentary rock.

Igneous rock forms when magma cools and makes crystals. Magma is a hot liquid made of melted minerals. The minerals can form crystals when they cool. Igneous rock can form underground, where the magma cools slowly. Or, igneous rock can form above ground, where the magma cools quickly.



When it pours out on Earth's surface, magma is called lava. Yes, the same liquid rock matter that you see coming out of volcanoes.

On Earth's surface, wind and water can break rock into pieces. They can also carry rock pieces to another place. Usually, the rock pieces, called sediments, drop from the wind or water to make a layer. The layer can be buried under other layers of sediments. After a long time the sediments can be cemented together to make sedimentary rock. In this way, igneous rock can become sedimentary rock.

All rock can be heated. But where does the heat come from? Inside Earth there is heat from pressure (push your hands together very hard and feel the heat). There is heat from friction (rub your hands together and feel the heat). There is also heat from radioactive decay (the process that gives us nuclear power plants that make electricity).

So, what does the heat do to the rock? It bakes the rock.

Baked rock does not melt, but it does change. It forms crystals. If it has crystals already, it forms larger crystals. Because this rock changes, it is called metamorphic. Remember that a caterpillar changes to become a butterfly. That change is called metamorphosis. Metamorphosis can occur in rock when they are heated to 300 to 700 degrees Celsius.

When Earth's tectonic plates move around, they produce heat. When they collide, they build mountains and metamorphose (met-ah-MORE-foes) the rock.

The rock cycle continues. Mountains made of metamorphic rocks can be broken up and washed away by streams. New sediments from these mountains can make new sedimentary rock.

The rock cycle never stops.
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YOU CAN CHANGE CLIMATE

It may seem hard to believe that people can actually change the Earth’s climate. But scientists think that the things people do that send greenhouse gases into the air are making our planet warmer.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere covers the Earth. It is a thin layer of mixed gases which make up the air we breathe. This thin layer also helps the Earth from becoming too hot or too cold, much like clothing does for us. Weather systems, which develop in the lower atmosphere, are driven by heat from the sun, the rotation of the Earth, and variations in the Earth's surface.

Oceans
Oceans cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface. Their large mass and thermal
properties, enable them to store vast quantities of heat. Oceans buffer and regulate temperature – energy absorbed or lost by the oceans results in a smaller surface temperature change than would occur over land. The atmosphere and ocean constantly exchange energy and matter. For example, water evaporates from the oceans into the atmosphere. This moisture then falls back to the Earth as precipitation – rain, snow, sleet, and even the morning dew on the grass.

Land
Land covers 27 percent of Earth's surface, and land topography influences weather patterns. For example, the weather in areas covered by mountains can be completely different than the weather in areas where the land is mostly flat.

Ice
Ice is the world's largest supply of freshwater. It covers the remaining 3 percent of Earth's surface including most of Antarctica and Greenland. Because ice is highly reflective and because of its insulating properties, ice plays an important role in regulating climate.

Biosphere
The biosphere is that part of Earth's atmosphere, land, oceans that supports any living plant, animal, or organism. It is the place where plants and animals, including humans, live. Large quantities of carbon dioxide are exchanged between the land-based biosphere and the atmosphere as plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, and animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxid.

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THE SUN

Without the Sun here would be no light or life on the Earth.

The Sun is the nearest star to the Earth. It is a storehouse of hot gases, mainly hydrogen. It is so large that 1,300, 000 planet Earths would fit inside it. Inside its core, its heat is 27 million Fahrenheit. Nuclear reactions are converting the hydrogen into helium. In the process, huge amounts of energy are produced. This energy, after tens of thousands of years, reach the sun's surface. Once the energy comes to the surface, it escapes into space as heat, light, and other types of radiations. We need the light and heat on this earth. The other radiations, such as ultraviolet rays, can be harmful. The Earth's atmosphere shield us from much of this harmful radiations.

The surface of the sun is called the photosphere. It is cooler, around 9,932 F. The photosphere is not solid Immediately above the sun's surface is the chromosphere. It is a layer of hydrogen and helium. This layer is 5,000 km thick. This layer merges into the outer layer of atmosphere, and this place is called corona. This corona stretches for millions of miles into space. It is very thin and hot. Its heat is around 5.4 million F. It gives off a constant stream of particles, called the solar wind. This solar wind travels through the solar system
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CONSTELLATIONS

From anywhere on the Earth we can look into the sky and see pinpoints of light. These tiny points of light are all stars. All these stars are part of our galaxy. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way. When you look at the night sky, you will see clear patterns in the sky. Astronomers use these patterns to find their way around. They draw imaginary pictures around the star patterns. These imaginary pictures help them to remember these stars. The first pictures was created four thousand years ago. We still use them.

The canvas of sky is divided into 88 pieces. Each piece is a constellation. And each constellation has a star pattern with an imaginary picture. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy (100-170 A.D.) listed the 48 constellations. Astronomers use these constellations with their star patterns.

The pictures in the sky are of different shapes. They include humans, animals, sea creatures, and tools of the artis and scientist. Ptolemy in his book Almagest lists the 48 pictures people were using in those days. These pictures were taken from Greek mythology. Orion, the hunter, Pegasus, the flying horse, and the Centaur who is half-man and half-horse were included in the sky pictures. The other 40 constellations were created in more recent times.

We cannot see all the 88 constellation from one place on the Earth. The Earth rotates on its axis once a day, and goes around the Sun once a year. Because of the rotation of the Earth, we cannot see all the constellations.

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THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The solar system is the Sun and the family of objects that go around it. These objects stay together because of the sun's gravity. The sun is the largest object in this system. It contains over 95 percent of the solar system material. Out of the remaining material are made all those objects that orbit the sun. These orbiting objects are nine planets, more than 130 moons, billions of asteroids, and billions of comets.

Because of the huge size of the sun, it has huge gravitational pull. This gravitational pull keeps the solar system together and controls the movements of the planets.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Neptune, and Mars are closer to the sun, and they are rocky. Farther away from the sun are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. As they are far away from the sun, these planets are colder and gaseous.

The distance in solar system is measured in Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is 93 million miles.

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COMETS

Comets are snowballs. Vast numbers of them live at the very edge of the solar system. When it travels close to the sun it grows a large head and two tails. Astronomers have estimated that about 10 trillion comets make up the Oort Cloud. It is a huge spherical cloud that surrounds our solar system. This cloud is 4.7 trillion miles wide. Comets are potato-shaped balls of ice and rocky dust, and each one is only a few miles wide.

Occasionally a comet leaves the Oort Cloud and travels into the inner solar system towards the sun. When a comet comes closer to the sun, it grows in size and brightness. The heat of the sun turns the ice into gas, and some dust is released. The gas and dust form a bright head. More gas and dust is blown away and look like two tails. The dust tail is yellowish-white, and the gas tail, bluish.

When a comet is close to the sun and has a head and two tails, it becomes visible from the earth. Some comets keep returning periodically to our sky. The time between its regular returns is called comet's period. Encke's Comet has the shortest period of return of just 3.3 years. Halley's Comet returns every 76 years.
Of the 135 comets, these two are the short-period comets. Others known as long-period comets appear once in thousands of years.

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SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS

This law is based upon our everyday experience that all hot objects cool down naturally. Heat flows naturally from hot objects to cold objects, but never from the cold objects to hot ones. When two blocks of metal at different temperatures are placed in contact with each other, the fast moving particles of hot block bump into slower particles of the cold block. These collisions transfer energy. In this transfer slower particles speed up and the faster particles slow down. It continues till the heat content is evenly spread between them and their temperature become equal.

In solids their particles are are arranged in fixed position. In crystals, the particles are set in a regular ordered pattern called lattice. When a solid is cold, its particles move or vibrate more slowly. When the temperature is high, the particles move or vibrate more. At lower temperature, the structure is more ordered. Disorder increases as temperature increases.

The particles in liquids are free to move past each other. They are more disordered than solids. Gases are even more disordered than liquids. A gas becomes less disordered if it is compressed. It is because their particles are even father apart.

Entropy

The particles in substances would be most ordered or least disordered at -273.15 C. This is called absolute zero or OK (zero Kelvin). Scientist invented a quantity called "entropy" to measure the amount of disorder in substances. Entropy increases greatly when a solid melts to form a liquid or a liquid boils to form a gas. Machines and living things produce waste heat as they change from from one form to another. This waste heat spreads through the surroundings and increases entropy. It represents energy that does not perform useful work.

As time goes by, the entropy of the universe increases as energy changes produce more and more waste heat. The universe will stop changing when all matter and all energy is uniformly spread.

At the end of time, all the energy in the universe will be in the form of heat that has uniformly spread out. When absolutely everywhere is at the same temperature, heat will not flow, so no work will be done - nothing will happen. Entropy will have reached its maximum value, and the universe will be dead and unchanging.

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THE NATURAL BALANCE

From the tiniest bacterium to the largest mammal. all living things share the planet. These organisms form communities that live together in a balanced state. A community of organisms that lives in a particular area, along with the soil and other nonliving material, forms what is called ecosystem.

Ecosystem can be as small as a water-filled hole in a forest tree or as large as forest itself. For example, plants provide food and oxygen needed by animals. And their waste products are recycled in the soil to be used by new plants as they grow.

Ecology

Ecology is the study of animals and plants in their natural environment. Ecologists try to find out why animals and plants live in some places but not in others. They also study the conditions needed for survival.

Most organisms are well-adapted to the place they live - their habitat - and to their relationships with other plants and animals. But, outside interference may effect this. Many of the world's natural ecosystem have taken thousands of years to reach a balanced state. If the climate does not change suddenly, an ecosystem can stay balanced for thousands of years to come. But humans often upset these balanced environments.

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CLIMATE ZONES

Climate shapes our planet and determines the landscape, vegetation, and wildlife of each region. There are NINE climate zones in this world. They are: Polar, Subpolar, Temperate, Subtropical, Desert, Tropical, Equatorial, Subpolar, and Mediterranean.

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RAIN FORESTS

Rain forests are the world's riches biomes. (Biome is a large community of plants and animals that occupies a particular region). These forest grow mainly near the equator. Rich in wildlife, they are under threat from human. There are more species of plants and animals in rain forest than any other biome on earth. The largest rain forests are the tropical forests of South America, Africa, Southeast Asia. The tropical climate is always warm and wet, with no winter, and plants grow all year long. The result is thick growth of trees, ferns, vines, and other plants. These in turn, support an extraordinarily rich variety of animal life, especially insects and birds.

Plants grow rapidly in a rain forest, and to reach the sunlight, the trees grow very tall. The rain forest has three distinct layers: the forest floor, the understory, and the canopy. Most of the trees have shallow roots, and get their nutrients from the upper layers of soil. Many support themselves with roots that grow outward, acting like props or buttresses. Smaller trees, seedlings, and shrubs form the lower layers nearer to the ground.

The main canopy is usually between 100 and 164 feet above the ground, where the slender trunks break into a cluster of branches. The tallest trees reach even higher - around 197 feet.

Rich habitat

Although they cover only six percent of the earth's surface, tropical rain forests contain about three fourths of all known species of animals and plants. There are plants in flower or fruit producing everywhere and every time of the year. They produce constant food supply for birds, bats, insects, snakes, and other animals.

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STORIES FOR CHILDREN

THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD WAS A NATURAL LEADER

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a natural leader of men even before his Prophethood. He was always just in whatever he did. He loved to help others. He was quick in understanding the nature of problems. He was a young man of thirty-five. That year the draperies of Kabah caught fire and its walls were damaged. So the people of Makkah decided to rebuild it.

Within the Quraish tribe, there were many clans. These all worked . The walls of the Kabah were raised. Then a dispute arose among them. The dispute was over the Black Stone. Each clan wanted the honour of lifting the Black Stone and placing it its place. They continued to quarrel because it was a question of honour for them. No clan was ready to compromise with their honour.

When the tension was at the highest, Hudhaifah Ibn al-Mughirah gave his suggestion. He was the oldest person there at that time. His suggestion was liked by everybody. He suggested, " O men of Quraish! We wil take as judge the first man to enter Kabbah." They all agreed to leave the maater to Providence.

The first man to enter the Kabah was the young Muhammad, peace be upon him. When the people saw him, they all exclaimed, "This is al-Amin (the trustworthy)." They all agreed to accept his judgment. He understood the reason for their problem. The reason was their ego.

Muhammad, pbh, "Bring me a sheet of cloth." When it was brought, he spread it on the ground. He took the Black Stone and placed it on the sheet of cloth. Then, he said, "Let the leader of each clan take hold of the border of the sheet." When they raised it, he took the Stone and placed it in its place. After this, the people continued their work happily to complete the reconstruction of Kabah.

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A PLEDGE OF HELP

Once a merchant from Yemen came to Makkah to sell his goods. He sold his goods to one person. After taking the goods from the merchant, he did not pay the price. That merchant was a stranger and did not know anybody in Makkah. The helpless merchant wrote a poem about his helpless condition in Makkah. He recited that poem in his painful voice, standing at the market-place there. At that time, Zubayr, one of the uncles of Muhammad, peace be upon him, passed that way and heard the poem.

Zubair was much ashamed to learn how an helpless outsider had been cheated by a citizen of Makkah. He was more ashamed that nobody had come to the help of that merchant. Zubayr called the elders of the town to a meeting. This meeting took place in the house of Abdullah ibn-Judan. In this meeting, they all decided that they would always protect the oppressed, even if he is from another town or country. They all took a pledge to be kind to the helpless people. This organization was called Hilf al-Fudul. All the people present in the meeting there became the members of Hilf al-Fudul.

Zybayr was one of the founders of it. He had brought his nephew, young Muhammad to this meeting. As Muhammad was present in the meeting, he was also a member of Hilf al-Fudul. After becoming the Prophethood, Muhammad, pbh, once said, " I was present in the house of Abdullah ibn Judan. It was such an excellent pact that I would not exchange my part in it for a herd of red camels. If somebody should appeal to me in the name of that pledge, I would certainly help him." Abu Quhafah with his son was also present. And this son was Abu Bakr who was a year or two younger to Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Muhammad, pbh, was always ready to help anybody, even those who were disbelievers.

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THE CAMEL SELLER FROM DESERT

Once a a man from the tribe of Irash came to Makkah with his camels to sell them. Abu Jahl bought these camels from him. He took away the camels but did not pay the money to the seller. The helpless man came to Kabah to make a complaint to the assembly of the Quraish. The camel seller said in his loud voice, " Who among you will help me to get what is due to me from Abul Hakam Ibn Hisham. I am a stranger to this place, and he refuses to pay me the price of my camels." Abul Kakam Ibn Hisham was the real name of Abu Jahl. Away from him, The Prophet, peace be upon him, was sitting by the side of Kabah.

People sitting there pointed towards the Prophet, pbh, and told him, " Go to that person. He will help you." It was their way of making fun of the Prophet. The innocent man went to the Prophet, pbh, and related the whole story. He even told the Prophet, pbh, "I came here to seek the help of people, and those people sent me to you." The Prophet, pbh, assured him, " Certainly I will. Let us go to that man."

At a distance those people were watching how he would help the merchant get his money. The Prophet, pbh, took the merchant to the house of Abu Jahl and knocked at his door. Abu Jahl asked who it was. The Prophet, pbh, replied, " I am Muhammad. Open the door." Abu Jahl opened the door and came out. Suddenly, the face of Abu Jahl lost colour. The Prophet, pbh, said, "Pay this man his due."

Abu Jahl went inside and brought the money and paid it to the camel-seller. He went back to the group of men and said, "May God reward him. He helped me get back my money."

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SENSE OF JUSTICE

When Umar bin Abdul Azeez was the Caliph of Muslims, a group of people came from Samarkand. They came to the Caliph to complain against Qutaibah ibn Muslim, the Commander-in-Chief of his army. His army had captured their country. Their complaint was that the army had not followed the Islamic principles in taking over their country.

According to the Islamic principles three choices are given to a non-Muslim country before attacking it. Those three choices are: accept Islam or pay the poll-tax or engage in war. They said the Commander had not given them any choice and captured the country.

After hearing this complaint, the Caliph wrote to the governor of Iraq to appoint a special judge to look into the matter. The governor appointed the judge, Jumai ibn Hadir an-Naji. The judge listened to the views of both the parties. He gave the judgment that the Commander had not followed the principles of justice. The judge passed the orders that the army should withdraw from Samarkand. The Muslim Commander accepted the judgment and asked his army to vacate the place. The people of Samarkand were deeply impressed by the Muslim sense of justice. They requested the army to stay there.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

In August 1911, a group of butchers discovered a 50-year-old “wild man” in their corral in Oroville, Calif. The local sheriff gave him into the keeping of a San Francisco anthropology museum, where he remained until his death five years later.

It’s believed that “Ishi” was the very last of his kind — the last of his group, the last of his people, and the last Native American in Northern California to have lived free of the encroaching European-American civilization.

The rest had been killed in encounters with the white man.

Even “Ishi” means only “man” in Yana, Ishi’s native language. When asked his actual name, Ishi had said, “I have none, because there were no people to name me.”
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Hafiz and Sadi are popular in the Europe

Hafiz was so great in Germany that the great German poet Goethe says: "O Hafiz, your word is as great as eternity for it has no begining and no end. Your word, as the canopy of Heaven, solely depends on itself. It is all signs, beauty and excellence." and Sadi was so great in France that the French named their sons Sadi, a good example is "Sadi Carnot", President of France (1887-1894).

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As many as 1 million workers died building the Great Wall of China.

It’s been called the “longest cemetery on Earth.”

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A young woman once asked Robert Peary, “But how does anyone know when he has reached the North Pole?”

“Nothing easier,” Peary said. “One step beyond the pole, you see, and the north wind becomes a south one.”

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In a 1632 version of the King James Bible, the printers omitted a “not” from Exodus 20:14, so the seventh commandment read “Thou shalt commit adultery.”

The printers were fined 300 pounds, a lifetime’s wages, and most of the copies were recalled. Eleven still exist

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In 1803, Australian Joseph Samuel was sentenced to hang for murder. The first attempt failed when the rope broke. A replacement rope stretched, letting Samuel’s feet touched the ground. And the third rope broke.

So they let him go.

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For a genocidal monster, Adolf Hitler was kind of a pansy:
He didn’t drink.
He largely avoided eating meat, beginning in the early 1930s. (“The world of the future will be vegetarian.”)
He slept with his dog, Blondi, a German Shepherd given to him by Martin Bormann.
He disapproved of cosmetics, since they contained animal byproducts, and he frequently teased Eva Braun about her makeup.

Hitler didn’t smoke, either, and he promoted aggressive anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany. Witnesses reported that, upon learning of his suicide, many of his officers, aides and secretaries responded by lighting cigarettes.

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In Britain during the 1700s, pickpocketing was punishable by death … but the public hangings became prime targets for pickpockets.

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Witches weren’t the only ones in danger during the Middle Ages. In 1386, when a pig tore a French child’s face, the tribunal of Falaise put it on trial, ultimately sentencing it to be maimed and hanged in human clothing.

In 1474 the Swiss town of Basel tried a rooster for sorcery (it had allegedly produced an egg) and burned it at the stake.

Likewise wolves, snakes, crows, bats, owls, rats — even dogs and cats were put on trial. Like women, animals were considered demonic whenever men couldn’t understand their behavior.

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When Thomas Edison died in 1931, his last breath was caught in a test tube by his son Charles.

He was convinced to do it by Henry Ford, who believed that a person’s dying breath contained his soul.

You can see it for yourself — the test tube is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

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Older than the pyramids, Ireland’s Newgrange lay lost for millennia until workers uncovered it while looking for building stone in the late 1600s.

No one knows who built it or why, but each year at the winter solstice the sun shines directly along a special passage into a chamber at its heart.

Oscar Wilde wrote, “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”

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William Gladstone once asked Michael Faraday the practical value of electricity.

“Why, sir,” the physicist replied, “presently you will be able to tax it.”
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Insulting nicknames of U.S. presidents:
John Adams: His Rotundity
Martin Van Buren: Martin Van Ruin
William Henry Harrison: Granny Harrison
John Tyler: His Accidency
James Buchanan: Old Public Functionary
Ulysses S. Grant: Useless
Rutherford B. Hayes: His Fraudulency
Grover Cleveland: The Beast of Buffalo
Woodrow Wilson: Coiner of Weasel Words
Warren G. Harding: President Hardly

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Officially, the modern bikini was invented in Paris in 1946, but women’s two-piece athletic garments go back to 1400 B.C. This mosaic, found in a Roman villa near Sicily, dates from 300 A.D. Evidently they had fans

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The first known serial killer was actually a woman, known as Locusta, a professional poisoner who lived in Rome during the first century A.D.

In 54, she killed the Emperor Claudius with a poisoned dish of mushrooms, and the following year she was convicted of a separate poisoning. Hearing of this, Nero rescued her from execution — so she could poison Britannicus for him.

They made a good partnership, Nero guaranteeing her safety during his lifetime, but when he died the Romans took an awful revenge. According to legend, Locusta was publicly raped by a specially trained giraffe, then torn apart by wild animals. Talk about cruel and unusual.publicly raped by a specially trained giraffe, then torn apart by wild animals. Talk about cruel and unusual.

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Hitler thought the moon was made of ice. The idea came from an Austrian engineer named Hanns Hörbiger, who had suggested in 1913 that most objects in the solar system were icy, apparently because they’re shiny. No one took this seriously at the time, but German socialists began to support it during the ’20s, and eventually it became official Nazi policy, an alternative to “Jewish” science.

The idea was dismissed again after the war, but it had a strange holding power — as late as 1953 more than a million people in Germany, England and the United States still believed in Hörbiger’s theory.

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The Chinese practice of footbinding, popular since medieval times, was banned only in 1911. Young girls’ feet were wrapped in bandages to prevent them from growing longer than 4 inches. By age 3, four toes on each foot would break, often leading to infection, paralysis and atrophy. Some elderly Chinese women today still show disabilities.

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erican superstitions, collected by folklorist Fanny Bergen in 1896:
If you sneeze at table with the mouth full, an acquaintance will die soon. (Virginia)
If your shoe comes untied, your sweetheart is talking about you. (Alabama)
To go back into the house for something after starting on a journey is unpropitious. To have it brought out is all right. (Iowa)
To dream of bread is good luck. (Boston)
If you drop the tea-towel, it is a sign of company. (Pennsylvania)
Pass a baby through a window and it will never grow. (South Carolina)
Dimple in chin, devil within. (Maryland)
If you are a bridesmaid three times you will never stand in the middle. (New York)

Also:

Beware of that man,
Be he friend or brother,
Whose hair is one color
And moustache another.

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Some kings expire in bed. Some die gloriously in battle.

Alexander of Greece was bitten to death by monkeys.

He was walking in the royal garden in October 1920 when a monkey attacked his dog. He fought it off with a stick, suffering only a wound on the hand, but the monkey’s mate rushed in and gave him a much more severe bite. He died of blood poisoning three weeks later.

Alexander’s exiled father returned and led the nation into a bloody war with Turkey. “It is perhaps no exaggeration,” wrote Winston Churchill, “to remark that a quarter of a million persons died of this monkey’s bite.

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There are only two places on earth where diamonds can be found at their original volcanic source. The first is South Africa … and the second, improbably, is Arkansas, where visitors to Crater of Diamonds State Park unearth more than 600 diamonds each year.

More than 25,000 have been found to date — including the 40-carat “Uncle Sam,” which Wesley Bassum sold in 1924 for $150,000.

“Let us not be too particular,” wrote Mark Twain. “It is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.”

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Photos of Chang Woo Gow are deceiving because of his regular proportions: The Chinese giant was already 7 foot 9 when he came to England at age 19 — he wrote his name on a wall at a height of 10 feet at the request of the Prince of Wales.

Fourteen years later, when he appeared in Paris for the 1878 World’s Fair, Chang had grown to 8 feet and weighed 364 pounds. But he met the public clamor with consistent kindness, grace, good humor, and a quiet intelligence — he spoke six languages and, on one occasion, greeted by name several visitors whom he had encountered once 16 years earlier.

After a tour of European capitals, he retired to Bournemouth, where it is said that on evening walks he would light his cigar at gas streetlamps. When he died in 1893 at age 48 (and was buried in a coffin eight and a half feet long), his friend William Day remembered him as “a giant of giants, great of stature, but with the kindest nature and a heart as true and tender as ever beat.”
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History’s shortest-reigning king served for 20 minutes. When Charles X abdicated the French crown after the July Revolution of 1830, rule passed to his son, Louis XIX, who immediately resigned as well, over his wife’s entreaties.

The longest-reigning king is the pharaoh Pepi II, who ascended the Egyptian throne in 2278 B.C. at age 6. He ruled for 94 years.

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When Cleopatra was born, the Great Pyramid was already 2,500 years old.

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Sixteenth-century prophet Nostradamus predicted three Antichrists. The first two are thought to have been Napoleon and Hitler, but the third, known only as “Mabus,” hasn’t shown up yet. Here are the relevant quatrains:

Mabus will soon die, then will come
A horrible undoing of man and beast,
We will see vengeance at once,
One hundred powers, thirst, famine, when passes the comet.

His hand finally through the bloody ALUS,
He will be unable to protect himself by sea,
Between two rivers he will fear the military hand,
The black and angry one will make him repent of it.

What does this mean? Who knows? Presumably it’ll make sense at the time.

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On Aug. 21, 1945, physicist Harry Daghlian accidentally dropped a brick of tungsten carbide into a plutonium bomb core at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The mass went critical, and Daghlian died of radiation sickness.

Exactly nine months later, physicist Louis Slotin was conducting an experiment on the same mass of plutonium when his screwdriver slipped and the mass again went critical. He too died of radiation sickness.

The mass became known as “the demon core.”

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Leprosy is the oldest recorded disease — it was reported as early as 1350 B.C. in Egypt.

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Croesus asked the oracle at Delphi whether he should attack the Persians. She replied that if he went to war, he would destroy a great empire.

Croesus attacked, but the Persians beat him back, invaded his kingdom, and threw him into chains. He sent another message to the oracle: “Why did you deceive me?”

She replied that she had not deceived him — he had indeed destroyed a great empire.

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“Stendhal syndrome” refers to rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion, and even hallucinations in the presence of great art.

It’s named for Stendhal himself, the 19th century French author, who reported experiencing it on an 1817 visit to Florence (and described it in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio).

It wasn’t formally described until 1979, when Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini documented more than 100 cases among visitors to Florence. The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1982.

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On several occasions, mathematician Maria Agnesi (1718-1799) arrived in her study to discover that a vexing problem had been solved for her — and, eerily, solved in her own handwriting.

Agnesi was a somnambulist. In her sleep she would walk to the study, make a light, and solve a problem that she had left incomplete.

Then she’d return to bed with no memory of what she’d done.

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Arguments against Galileo:

“Animals, which move, have limbs and muscles; the earth has no limbs or muscles, therefore it does not move.” — Scipio Chiaramonti, University of Pisa, 1633

“Buildings and the earth itself would fly off with such a rapid motion that men would have to be provided with claws like cats to enable them to hold fast to the earth’s surface.” — Libertus Fromundus, Anti-Aristarchus, 1631

“If we concede the motion of the earth, why is it that an arrow shot into the air falls back to the same spot, while the earth and all the things on it have in the meantime moved very rapidly toward the east? Who does not see that great confusion would result from this motion?” — Polacco, Anticopernicus Catholicus, 1644

More recent:

“[Astronomers give the rate of Earth's rotation as 1,000 kilometers per hour.] An aircraft flying at this rate in the same direction as that of the rotation could not cover any ground at all. It would remain suspended in mid-air over the spot from which it took off, since both speeds are equal. There would, in addition, be no need to fly from one place to another situated on the same latitude. The aircraft could just rise and wait for the desired country to arrive in the ordinary course of the rotation, and then land; although it is difficult to see how any plane could manage to touch ground at all on an airfield which is slipping away at the rate of 1,000 kilometers per hour. It might certainly be useful to know what people who fly think of the rotation of the earth.” — Gabrielle Henriet, Heaven and Earth, 1957

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Alexander III once wrote a warrant condemning a prisoner to transportation:

PARDON IMPOSSIBLE, TO BE SENT TO SIBERIA.

The man appealed to the czar’s wife, who transposed the comma:

PARDON, IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SENT TO SIBERIA.

The prisoner was released.

The actress Minnie Maddern Fiske once found this message attached to the mirror in her dressing room:

MARGARET ANGLIN SAYS MRS. FISKE IS THE BEST ACTRESS IN AMERICA.

She returned it to Anglin, who found she had added two commas:

MARGARET ANGLIN, SAYS MRS. FISKE, IS THE BEST ACTRESS IN AMERICA.

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The Chevalier d’Eon (1728-1810) lived the first half of his life as a man and the second as a woman. Until age 49 d’Eon served as a diplomat and soldier in Louis XV’s France, fighting in the Seven Years’ War and spying in London for the king.

But in 1771 he claimed he was physically a woman and asked to be recognized as such. The government agreed, even financing a new wardrobe, and the chevalier spent his remaining 33 years as a woman, participating in fencing tournaments and even offering to lead a division of women soldiers against the Habsburgs.

Doctors who examined him after death discovered that his body was anatomically male.

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“For God’s sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him — he may have a razor on him.”

– Editor of the London Daily Express, refusing to see John Logie Baird, inventor of television, 1925

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In 1977, a gravely ill 19-month-old Qatari girl was flown to a London hospital, where her condition continued to worsen, baffling her doctors.

On the sixth day, the observing nurse was startled to see that the girl began to lose her hair. She realized that the patient’s symptoms were strikingly similar to those in Agatha Christie’s novel The Pale Horse, which she had been reading.

In Christie’s novel, the murder victims had been killed by thallium poisoning. Tests confirmed elevated levels of thallium in the girl’s urine, and doctors treated her accordingly. Three weeks later she was well enough to go home.

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Adolf Hitler produced more than 2,000 paintings and drawings before World War I.

He once described himself as a misunderstood artist.

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“The greatest smoker in Europe died at Rotterdam, and left behind him the most curious of wills. He expresses the wish in his last testament that all the smokers of the country be invited to attend his obsequies, and that they smoke while following in the funeral cortege. He directs that his body be placed in a coffin, which shall be lined with wood taken from old Havana cigar boxes. At the foot of his bier, tobacco, cigars, and matches are to be placed. And the epitaph which he requests shall be placed upon his tombstone is as follows:

Here Lies
TOM KLAES,
The Greatest Smoker in Europe.
He Broke His Pipe
July 4, 1872.
Mourned by his family and
all tobacco merchants.
STRANGER, SMOKE FOR HIM!

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The sky isn’t blue. It’s actually violet, but a quirk of human vision makes us less sensitive to those wavelengths.

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In early 1912, writer Mayn Clew Garnett submitted a story to Popular Magazine. “The White Ghost of Disaster” told the story of the Admiral, an 800-foot ocean liner that strikes an iceberg at 22.5 knots in the North Atlantic and sinks, killing more than a thousand passengers, largely due to a scarcity of lifeboats.

On April 14, while the story was in press, the 882-foot Titanic struck an iceberg at 22.5 knots in the North Atlantic and sank, killing 1,517, largely due to a scarcity of lifeboats.

The story appeared in May.

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H.G. Wells’ 1914 novel The World Set Free is not his best known, but it’s certainly his most prescient — he predicted nuclear weapons:

She felt torn out of the world. There was nothing else in the world but a crimson-purple glare and sound, deafening, all-embracing, continuing sound. Every other light had gone out about her, and against this glare hung slanting walls, pirouetting pillars, projecting fragments of cornices, and a disorderly flight of huge angular sheets of glass.

The novel imagines an invention that accelerates radioactive decay, producing unthinkably powerful bombs. (Wells even dedicated the novel “to Frederick Soddy’s interpretation of radium.”)

This application was far ahead of the science of the time — physicist Leó Szilárd later said it helped inspire his own conception of a nuclear chain reaction.

If that’s not impressive enough: In Wells’ novel, allies drop an atomic bomb on Germany during a world war in the 1940s!

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The world’s first airmail stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service, which carried messages from New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island to the mainland between 1898 and 1908.

It was pretty good: The fastest pigeon, aptly named Velocity, made the trip to Auckland in only 50 minutes, averaging an astounding 125 kph. That’s only 40 per cent slower than modern aircraft.

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# 736 = 7 + 36
# NOOK combines two antonyms.

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ON KISS AND HANDSHAKE

Kissing began with the ancient Romans. When the warrior husband came home from his battles he would kiss hiswife to detect if she had gotten into the wine stores of the house by determining if the taste of wine was in her mouth. Just as handshaking began out of a sense of mistrust - it was to show that no weapons were in them - so too did kissing.

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LANGUAGE

ANAGRAM

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ; I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ; I'LL MAKE A WISE PHRASE
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ; OUR BEST NOVEL IN STORE
SOFTHEARTEDNESS ; OFTEN SHESDS TEARS
HORATIO NELSON ; ON, THEN, O SAILOR
SAINT VALENTINE DAY ; NAY, A LASS INVENTED IT
THE UPHOLSTERIES ; RESTORE THE PLUSH
TO CAST PEARLS BEFORE SWINE ; ONE LABOUR IS PERFECT WASTE
ANIMOSITY ; IS NO AMITY
PRINCESS DIANA can be rearrnged as DESCEND IN PARIS
ELEVEN PLUS TWO is TWELVE PLUS ONE
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In a dictionary, the verb 'BE' is described as:

BE [verb]

first and third person singular past indicative: was
second person singular and plural and first and third person plural past indicative: were
past subjunctive: were
past participle: been
present participle: being
first person singular present indicative: am
second person singular and plural and first and third person plural present indicative: are
third person singular present indicative: is
present subjunctive: be

Therefore you can correctly say 'I am', 'she is', 'you are', etc. Is it ever grammatically correct to say 'I is'?



Answer:

Yes: I is the first letter of igloo!
or
I is the first letter of India.
I is the last letter of the word Hindi.

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*****

he words below are all anagrams of other words, the initial letters of which form an anagram of another word. What is the answer?

bruise
warned
please
listen
veined
trance



Answera;


The answer is 'ANSWER': asleep, nectar, silent, wander, envied, rubies.

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Can you find anagrams of the following words?

ASPIRATE
ALARMING
BLEATING
DECIMATE
CREATIVE
CHEATING
DOWNLOAD
GRADIENT
ALTITUDE
GENERATE



Answer:


Parasite, marginal, tangible, medicate, reactive, teaching, woodland, treading, latitude, teenager.

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OPERAS is the plural of OPERA, which is the plural of OPUS.
OPUS means 'musical composition'.

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Exceptions to “I before E …”:

albeit, beige, counterfeit, deity, either, feisty, height, kaleidoscope, leisure, neighbor, obeisance, protein, reveille, seize, veil, weird, zeitgeist

“… except after C”:

ancient, concierge, efficient, financier, glacier, juicier, democracies, species

Will Rogers said, “Nothing you can’t spell will ever work.”
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UNNOTICEABLY contains the vowels A, E, I, O, and U in reverse order.

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Many masculine nouns can be converted to feminine with a suffix, as HERO-HEROINE and HOST-HOSTESS, WIDOE-WIDOWER, BRIDE-BRIDEGROOM
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It’s said that when Christopher Wren completed St. Paul’s cathedral in 1708, Queen Anne told him his work was “awful, artificial, and amusing.”

He took this as a compliment — in those days these words meant awe-inspiring, artistic, and amazing.

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spaneria = (noun) scarcity of men
spanogyny= (noun) scarcity of women
karoshi = (noun) death from over war
epicaricacy = (noun) taking pleasure in other's misfortune
swedge = (verb) to leave without paying one's bill
aidle = (verb) to earn one’s bread indifferently well



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You can type the numbers ONE through NINETY-NINE without using the letters A,B,C, or D.

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Only ants and men make war on a large scale.

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*********

ANAGRAM

THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR ; HE INTERROGATES VICTIMS
ASTEROID THREATS ; DISASTER TO EARTH
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE is an anagram of I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER
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spaneria = (noun) scarcity of men
spanogyny= (noun) scarcity of women
karoshi = (noun) death fr



THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR ; HE INTERROGATES VICTIMS
ASTEROID THREATS ; DISASTER TO EARTH
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE is an anagram of I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER
*********************



spaneria = (noun) scarcity of men
spanogyny= (noun) scarcity of women
karoshi = (noun) death from overwork

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Vowels are in order in 'facetiously'.
Vowels are in reverse order in 'subcontinental'

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PALINDROMES ( reads the same on reverse)

Never odd or even.
Rotary gyrator.
Roy, am I mayor?
Ten animals I slam in a net.
Was it Elliot's toilet I saw.


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Irish sayings:
You have to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life.

Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die.
Anything will fit a naked man.

He who gets a name for early rising can stay in bed until midday.

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CONTRADICTORY PROVERBS

Look before you leap.
He who hesitates is lost.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.

You're never too old to learn.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Better safe than sorry.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

Do unto others as you would have otherd do unto you.
Nice guys finish last.

Many hands make light work.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.

The squeaky wheel gets the greese.
Silence is golden.

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picqueter
n. one who arranges artificial flowers for a living

Arnold Bennett was surprised to find no fresh flowers in George Bernard Shaw’s apartment.

“But I thought you were so fond of flowers,” he said.

“I am,” Shaw replied, “and I’m very fond of children too, but I don’t chop their heads off and stand them in pots about the house.”

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD, peace be upon him

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD, peace be upon him


The Messenger of Allah, pbh, was born in 570 A.D in Arabia. There were only three major towns in Arabia in those days. They were Makkah, Taif, and Yethrib. Muhammad, pbh, was born at Makkah. In those days Makkah was an imprtant town because it was at the junction of many trading routs. It was famous as the home of Kabah where people used to come from far off places to worship. The original Kabah was built by Prophet Ibrahim, pbh, and his son, Prophet Ismail, pbh. 

His mother's name was Aminah bint Wahb. His father's name was Abdullah who had died two months before his death. Abdullah' father was Abd al-Muthalib. He was the head of the Quraysh tribe, guardian of Kabah and the protector of the pilgrims who visited this holy place. He was respected by all. He was happy at the birth of his grandson and gave the name of Muhammad to the baby. Muhammad in Arabic means 'one who is worthy of praise'.

Jubair bin Mutim, may Allah be pleased with him, narrates that the Messenger of Allah, pbh, said:

"I have five names: I am Muhammad and Ahmad; I am al-Mahi, through whom Allah will eliminate al-kufr; I am al-Hashir, who will be the first to be resurrected, and I am also al-Aqib, (i.e. there will be no Prophet after me). Abu Musa Abdullah bin Qais narrates that the Messenger of Allah, pbh, said, " I am Muhammad; I am Ahmad; I am al-Muqaffi (the last in succession), and I am the Prophet of repentance and the Prophet of mercy."

On another occasion, the Prophet, pbh, said: "And I am the Prophet of al-Malhamah." 'al-Malhamah' means 'fighting' in Arabic. Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him, narrates that the Messenger of Allah, pbh, said: "I am Mohammad and Ahmad; I am al-Hashir (first to be resurrected), I am al-Mahi, through whom Allah will eliminate kufr. On the Day of Judgement, the banner of praise will be with me, and I will be the leader of the Messengers, and their intercessors."

Allah says about the Prophet, pbh, in His Book, "Bringer of good news and warning". (al-Baqra 2:119)

Again Allah calls him: " Merciful and full of pity". (al-Tawbah 9:128) And Allah calls him: "A mercy to the world". (al-Anbiya 21:107)

WET NURSING

It was an Arab custom in those days that mothers would give their babies to suckling mothers. These suckiling mothers would carry the babies to their desert home and suckle the babies for a certain amount of money. Aminah gave the little baby Muhammad to a wet-nurse Halimah. The baby grew up well in the desert with Halimah and her family. When the child was three years, Halimah brought him to his mother.

When the child was six, his mother, Aminah took him to Yethrib so that the child could meet his uncles there. The child enjoyed the journey. In Yethrib, he enjoyed his stay there. He learned to swim in the company of his cousins. On the journey back to Makkah, his mother fell ill. Her servant maid, Barakah was with them. She nursed the ailing mother, but after a few days, she died on the way. Now the boy was under the protection of the loving care of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib. After two years, his grandfather died. After his death, his uncle Abu, Talib adopted his nephew.

As a boy he used to take care of the sheep of Abu Talib. When he was a boy of twlve years, Abu Talib took him on a journey to Busra, in Syria. There a monk, Bahira saw the young Muhammad, pbh, and recognized the signs of Prohethood. The monk asked Abu Talib to return with he boy to al-Aqabah, so that the Jews might not do him any harm. Immediately, Abu Talib made arrangements to send the boy back to Makkah under the protection of his servants.

MARRIAGE TO KHADIJAH


Muhammad's experience of trading and his reputation of excellent manners brought him to the attention of Khadijah. She was a beautiful nd wealthy widow. She belonged to the family of merchants and she herself had her business. Khadihjah offered her goods to Muhammad to take them to Syria for trading. The trade trip to Syria was very successful and he brought good profit to Khadijah. She was very happy about the new business partner. Her servant, Maysarah, who accompanied Muhammad, pbh, to Syria also gave good report of his honesty in trading, and his excellent behaviour towards others. Khadijah was very impressed and she wanted to marry him. She conveyed her intention through her friend, Nufaysah. Muhammad, pbh, consulted his uncle and other family members. All happily agreed to this marriage.

HILF AL-FUDUL

One day a trader brought goods to Makkah to sell. But some wicked people of Makkah stole his goods. The helpless trader called for help, but nobody came forward to help him. He wrote a poem about what the people of Makkah did to him. He recited the poem loudly at the marketplace to attract the attention of the people. One of Muhammad's uncles, Zubayr heard this painful poem and felt ashamed.

Zubayr called a meeting of the elders of the town. This meeting discussed how helpless people face problems in that holy town of Makkah. The people formed an organisation to protect the helpless people. This organization was called 'Hilf al-Fudul'. Muhammad was an enthusiastic member of this organization. The members of Hilf al-Fudul took a pledge that they would come to the protection of all those people who were weak, even if they are from outside of Makkah.

Many years later, Muhammad, pbh, still considered this organization to be an important organization. He said, "I am not prepared to break my pledge, even against a herd of camels. If somebody should come to me even today, I would hurry to help him by virtue of that pledge."
His love for justice, his quick understanding of problems, and his real interest in his fellow beings made him a leader of people. People came to rely on him and his honesty. Often people would come to him with their disputes to settle them. He became famous among the people as 'al-Sadiq' .

BLACK STONE DISPUTE

In 605 A.D the draperies of the Kabah caught fire. In this fire accident the structure of Kabah was also damaged. They decided to reconstruct it. Each person contributed according to his capacity. Muhammad also participated in this reconstruction. He used to carry stones on his shoulder. One day there was a dispute among the people as who should refix the black stone to its place. Somebody suggested that the matter be left to Providence. They all agreed to accept the suggestion of the person who would enter there at that time. It so happened Muhammad just then entered to work there as usual. They all cried in one voice, "al-Sadiq has come". He listened to them and understand their problem. It was the problem of their ego. He asked them to bring a sheet of cloth. He spread the sheet on the ground and placed the black stone on the sheet. He asked all the leaders of the tribes to hold the corners of this sheet and take it to the wall. They brought it to the wall. He took the stone and placed it on its place. Everybody was happy that the problem was solved so easily. At that time,Muhammad, pbh, was thirty-five years old.

CAVE OF HIRA

After his marriage to Khadijah, he lived a comfortable life of a wealthy merchant. But soon he gave up all and often went to spend most of his time in the Cave of Hira. This Cave is about three miles from Makkah. He would stay alone in that cave as long as the food and water lasted. Often he used to go there and spend his time in prayer and meditation. Muhammad, pbh, as forty years old in 610 A.D. It was the month of Ramadan. As usual, he was sitting alone in the Cave of Hira. Archangel Jibril appeared before Muhammad, pbh, in human form. Jibril commanded him, "Read!". "I cannot read," replied Muhammad, pbh. The angel held Muhammad, pbh, tightly by the shoulders and shook him. And then Jibril taught him:
Read, in the name of your Lord who
created, created you from a clot. Read.
And your Lord is the Most Generous Who
taught by the pen, taught man what he did
he did not know.
These are the first verses Allah revealed to Muhammad, pbh, through Jibril. This new experience not only surprised him but confused him. He was feeling as if he was abut to fall sick. He rushed back to the comfort of home. He narrated what happened to him in the Cave of Hira. Khadijah comforted him. She assured him that his Lord would not harm him. She took him to her cousin, Waraqah. He was a man of knowledge. He assured Muhammad, pbh, the revelation was from the same source the Prophet Musa, pbh, had his message. It was from the same source the Prophet Isa, pbh, had his message.

Muhammad, pbh, realized Allah not only gave him guidance but chose him as His Messenger. He continued to receive the message of Allah for twenty three years.


HIS CHILDREN

He had three sons and four daughters. His three sons were : Al-Qasim, Abdullah, and Ibrahim. His daughters were: Zainab, Ruqayyah, Fatimah, and Umm Kulthum.

His sons:

Al-Qasim: After his birth, Muhammad, pbh, was nicknamed as Abu Qasim (Father of Qasim). He was born before his Prophethood. He died at the age of two. Qatada says about the child, "He lived until he was able to walk."

Abdullah: He was also called At-Tayyib and At-Tahir because he was born after Prophethood. Some scholars say these two names were names of other sons. But majority of the scholars agree that Abdullah was called by these two names also.

Ibrahim: He was born in Madinah and died there. It was the tenth year of Hijrah that he died at the age of 17 or 18 months.

His daughters:

Zainab: She was given in marriage to Abul-Aas bin Ar-Rabi, the son of her maternal aunt Halah bint Khuwailid. She gave birth to Alo who died in infancy. She had a daughter by name Umamah. It was this granddaughter the Prophet, pbh, carried in his arms while performing the prayers. She was married to Ali bin Abu Talib after the death of Fatimah.

Ruqayyah: She was married to Uthman bin Affan. Upon her death, he married her sister. Her name was also Umm Kulthum. She also died during his lifetime. Ruqyyah gave birth to a son who was named Abdullah. After his birth, Uthman nicknamed himself as Abu Abdullah (Father of Abdullah).

Fatimah: She was married to Ali bin Abu Talib. She gave birth to three sons, Hasan, Husain, and Muhassin, and two daughters, Umm Kulthum and Zainab. Muhassin died in his childhood. Her daughter, Umm Kulthum was given in marriage to Umar bin Al-Khattab, and Zainab was married to Abdullah bin Jafar.

Umm Kulthum: She was married to Uthman bin Affan after the death of his wife, Ruqyyah. She died during the lifetime her husband.

The children of the Prophet, pbh, were born in the following order.

Al-Qasim was the first, then Zainab, Ruqyyah, Fatimah, and Umm Kulthum were born before the Prophethood. Abdullah and Ibrahim were born in Madinah. All his children were from his first wife Khadijah. Ibrahim was born from Mariyah, the Coptic. All his children died before him except Fatimah. She died six months after his death.

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HIS HIJRAH (MIGRATION)

He migrated to Madinah along with Abu Bakr. The freed slave of Abu Bakr, Aamir bin Fuhairah was alosmwith them. The Prophet, pbh, took a disbeliever by name Abdullah bin Uraiqit al-Laithi as a guide.

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HIS DEATH


He died when he was sixty-three years old. Some scholars say that he was sixty, and some say he was sixty five at the time of his death. Majority of the scholars believe that he was sixty-three.

He died on Monday morning after twelve night have passed in the month of Rabi ul-Awwal. Some say it after two nights had passed, and some say it was at the beginning of the month.

He was buried on Wednesday night. And some say it was Tuesday night. He was ill for twelve days, and some say he was ill for fourteen days before he died.

His body was washed by Ali bin Abu Talib, his uncle Al-Abba, Al-FAdl bin Al-Abbas, Qutham bin Al-Abbas, Usamah bin Zaid, and Shuqran, his freed slave. Aws bin Khawla Al-Ansari also attended the washing of his body.

His body was shrouded in three pieces of cloth from Sahu, a city in Yemen. There was no shirt or turban.

The Muslims present there offered the funeral prayer individually without any Imam. A piece of red velvet that he used to cover himself with when he was alive was spread underneath him.

Al-Abbas, Ali , Al-Fadl bin Al-Abbas, Qutham, and Shuqran got into the grave. The sides of the grave were blocked by nine stone-blocks.

He was buried at the place where he died. It was the house of Aisha. Later Abu Bakr and Umar were also buried next to him.

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HIS SCRIBES

Abu Bakr, Umar bin Al-Khattab, Uthman bin Affan, Ali bin Abu Talib, Amr bin Fuhairah, Abdullah bin Al-Arqam, Ubayy bin Ka'b, Thabit bin Qais, Khalid bin Sa'id, Hanzalah bin Ar-Rabi, Zid bin Thabit, Mu'awiyah bin Abu Sufyan, and Shurahbil bin Hasanah served as the scribes of the Prophet Muhammad, pbh. Among these, Mu'awiyah bin Abu Sufyan and Zaid bin Thabit were the most attentive scribes.

HIS AMBASSADORS

Prophet Muhammad, pbh, sent Amr bin Umayyah Ad-Damri to An-Najashi, the ruler of Ethiopia. His proper name was Ashamah which means 'a grant'. He took the letter of the Messenger of Allah, pbh, placed it on his eyes. He got down from his throne and sat down on the floor. He accepted Islam before Ja'far bin Abu Talib and his companions. It is authentically reported that the Messenger of Allah, pbh, performed the funeral prayer for An-Najashi.

He dispatched Dihyah Al-Kalbi to Caesar, the emperor of Rome. Caesar was his title and Heraclius was his real name. He asked many questions about the Prophet, pbh, and he wanted to accept Islam. He had the fear that he would not be allowed to be the ruler if he accepted Islam. Fearing the loss of power, he kept away from Islam.

He sent Abdullah bin Hudhafah As-Shami to Khosrau, the emperor of Persia. The emperor took the letter of the Prophet, pbh, and tore it into pieces. When this was reported to the Prophet, pbh, he said: "May Allah tear his kingdom to pieces." Allah accepted the invocation of the Prophet, pbh, and Khosrau's empire was torn up.
Later, the emperor faced great defeat and lost his empire.

The Messenger of Allah, pbh, sent Hatib bin Abu Balt'ah to Al-Muqauqis who was the ruler of Alexandria (Egyp). The ruler received the message with good manners and said kind words. He did not accept Islam but presented Mariyah Al-Qibtiyah and her sister, Sirin as royal gifts to the Messenger of Allah, pbh. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, gsve Sirin as a present to Hassan bin Thabit.

The Prophet, pbh, Amr bin Al-Aas to the ruler of Oman. At that time, Jaifar was the ruler. He and his brother, the sons of Al-Julandi were from the tribe of Al-Azd. These two brothers accepted Isam. The gave the responsibility of collecting the Zakah to the ambassador of the Prophet, pbh, himself. Amr bin Al-Aas carried out his responsibility until the death of the Prophet, pbh.

Salit bin Amr bin Al-Aamri was sent to Hawdhah bin Ali Al-Hanafi at Yamamah. He received the ambassador with respect and entertained him generously. He sent a letter to the Prophet, pbh, and suggested in that letter, "How excellent is what you invite the people to do. I am the orator and poet of my people. So allocate for me some position." The Messenger of Allah, pbh, rejected his suggestion. The ruler died as a disbeliever in the year of the conquest of Makkah.

The Messenger of Allah, pbh, sent Shuja bin Wahb Al-Asdi to Al-Harith bin Abu Shamir. He was king in Balqa, a province in Syria. Shuja met with him at Ghuta in Damascus. Al-Harith read the message and threw it away. He threatened, "I will march forth to him."

The Prophet, pbh, sent Al-Muhajir bin Abu Usmayyah to the king of Yemen, Al-Harith Al-Himyari.

He sent Al-Ala bin Al-Hadrami to Al-Mundhir bin Sawi Al-Abdi, the king of Bahrain, with a letter, inviting to Islam. After reading the letter, he accepted Islam.

Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari and Mu'adh bin Jabal Al-Ansai were sent to the people of Yemen. They invited the people to accept the sessage of Islam. The ruler and majority of the people accepted Islam.

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HIS ANIMALS

The first horse Prophet Muhammad, pbh, owned was As-Sakb. He purchased this horse from a Bedouin from Banu Fazarah for ten silver coins. The horse was called Ad-Darris by the Bedouin, but the Prophet, pbh, changed its name and called his As-Sakb. The horse had spots onhis lower right legs, and it was the first horse the Prophet, pbh, fought, sitting on it.

He had another horse named Sabhah which he used to race on.

Al-Murtajaza was the horse he bought from a Bedouin. Khuzaiiiiimah bin Thabit was a witness for this purchase, and the seller Bedouin was from Banu Murrah.

Sahl bin Sa'd As-Sa'adi said: "There were three horses of the Messenger of Allah, pbh, Lizaz, Az-Zarab, and Al-Luhaif. Lizaz was a gift from Al-Muqauqis, Al-Luhaif was a gift from Rabi'ah bin Abul-Bara who inherited this horse from Kilab. Az-Zarab was given to him by Farwah bin 'Amr Al-Judhami.

He had a horse called Al-Ward that was given to him by Tamim Ad-Dari. He gave this horse as a present to Umar. Umar found this horse to be very fast in running.

He had a mule named Ad-Duldul which he used for going on long journeys. The mule grew old and lost it teeth. The mule died in Madinah.

He had a donkey which was named Ufair. This donkey died in the year of his Farewll Message.

He had twenty milking camels. Every night they were milched. Among the most productive were Al-Hanna, As-Samra Al-Uraiyus, As-Sa'diyah. Al-Baghum, Al-Yusairah, and Ar-Rayya. He had a milking camel named Burdah and this camel was given to him by Ad-Dahak bin Sufyan. It would provide as much milk as of the other most productive camels. He had one, named Murrah, and this was sent to him by Sa'd bin Ubadah, and another camel Ash-Shuqra. He had another camel, named Al-Abada. This camel, he bought from Abu Bakr for four hundred dirhams. This is the camel he rode on for migrating to Madinah. He had two racing camels, Al-Qaswa and Al-Jud'a. The speed of these two camels amazed the onlookers.

Hehad seven goat. He used them for milk. They were 'Ajzah, Zamzam, Suqya, Barakah, Warasah, Atal, and Atraf. Apart from these seven milking goats, he had a flock of hundred goats.

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HIS MIRACLES


Of all the miracles of the Prophet, pbh, the Quran stands out as the greatest. Its eloquence and fluency are matchless. Mankind could never produce even one verse similar to its verses. This is an infallible Book of guidance.

Once the polytheists asked him to show them a sign. He split asunder the moon. Allah the Almighty states this occurance in His Book:
"The hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder." (Al-Qamar 54:1)

The Messenger of Allah said, pbh, "Allah has gathered up the earth for me, and I have seen the places where the sun rises and the places where it sets. The domain of my nation will reach to the places I have been shown," (Muslim No.2889)

The Messenger of Allah, pbh, used to deliver the sermon on a palm tree trunk. When he began using a pulpit instead of this tree trunk it began to weep. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, touched this tree trunk with his hand to console it. Then it stopped sobbing.

It is authentically reported that water gushed forth from between his fingers on more than one occasion.

Pebbles in his palm were heard glorifying Allah the Almighty. Then he put the pebbles in the palm of Abu Bakr, then Umar's, and then Uthman's, and they all heard the pebbles glorifying Allah. They used to hear the glorification of the food, while he ate it. The trees and stones used to greet him. The poisoned shoulder of a sheep revealed to him that it was posoned. The one who ate the meat with him died of the effect of the poison in it.

A wolf testified to his Prophethood. Once he saw a camel loaded with things. The camel saw him and sat down. The Messenger of Allah said, "It complains to me about the hard task it is charged with, and the little fodder it is given."

At another time he entered a garden where he found two stampeding camels. Their owners could not control them. When one of the camels saw the Messenger of Allah, pbh, it came and knelt down before him. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, muzzled it and gave the lead to its owner. The other camel with all obedience.

One day during his journey he was resting at one place. A tree shot up, splitting the earth, and stood by the place where he was lying. When he woke up, his companions told him what had happened. He replied: "It was a tree that asked permission of its Lord to greet Allah's Messenger, so He permitted it."

And he, pbh, ordered two trees to combine, and they did. Then he ordered them to go back to their places, detached from each other, they did.

A bedouin asked him to show him a sign. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, ordered a tree to come him. The tree came to him and stood before him. Then he, pbh, ordered it to return to its place, and it did so.

And at another time when he wanted to slaughter six camels. Each one of them tried to push the other out of the way to be the first to be slaughtered by him.

He once rubbed the udder of an extremely old ewe , and the udder swelled with milk. He drank the milk drawn from it and also gave it to Abu Bakr to drink.

Qatadah bin An-Nu'man Az-Zafari's eye was gouged out and it fell into his hand. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, put the eye back into its place, and after this his eyes were sharper than before.

He put some of his saliva in the eye of Ali bin Abu Talib when it was infected. It recovered with no sign of infection after that. He prayed to Allah when Ali fell sick, and he regained his health. Because of that 'dua' of the Prophe, pbh, Ali never fell sick afterwards.

Abdullh bin Atik's leg was wounded. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, rubbed it and it was cured.

He foretold that he would kill Ubayy bin Khalaf on the day of Uhud. During the battle, the Messenger of Allah, pbh, gave him a superficial scratch, and later he died of it.

Sa'd bin Mu'ad said to his brother, Ummayyah bin Khalaf, "I heard Muhammad saying that he is the one who will kill you." Umayyah was killed on the dayof Badr in the state of kufr.

On the day of the battle of Badr, he foretold the names of the disbelievers who would be killed and pointed out the places they would fall dead. Every he foretold died at the exact place he had mentioned.

He foretold the names of his companions who would invade the foreign lands, and it occurred as he said.

He foretold that Uthman bin Affan would suffer a great affliction. He faced it and eventually he was assassinated.

He said about Al-Hasan, may All be pleased with him, "Indeed this son of mine is a master and may Allah make reconciliation between two great groups of the believers through him." (See Al-Bukhari/No.3704, Abu Dawud/No.46662, At-Tirmidhi/No.3773, An-Nasa'i/No.3:107, and Ahmad/No.5:49)

This too happened exactly as the Prophet, pbh, foretold.

He told his companions who were the murderers of the false prophet, Al-Aswad Al-Ansi were on the very night that he was killed in San'a in Yemen. He told the same about Khosrau, and it happened just as he foretold.

He foretold about Ash-Shaima bint Buqaila Al-Azdiyah that she would die on a mule wearing a black head covering. She died during the time of Abu Bakr in the army of Khalid bin Al-Walid as he described.

He said to Thabit bin Qais bin Shammas: "You will live a praiseworthy life, and die as a martyr." He lived a praiseworthy life and was killed as a martyr at the battle of Yamamah.

He said about one of those who claimed Islam participating in a battle with him; " He is one of the inhabitants of the Fire." That man later committed suicide.

He prayed to Allah for Umar bin Al-Khattab to accept Islam, and Umar accepted Islam.

He supplicated for Ali bin Abu Talib to be protected from heat and cold, and from that time Ali felt neither heat nor cold after that.

He asked Allah the Almighty to bestow on Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, the understanding of the religion, and the interpretation of the Quran. He was later known as the most knowledgeable and wise person because of his immense knowledge.

He prayed for Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, that he live longer and have an abundance of wealth and children and the blessings of Allah on these. Anas is said to have had 120 male children, his palm-trees would yield twice a year, and live for more than 120 yars.

When Utaibah bin Abu Lahab tore the shirt of the Messenger of Allah, pbh, and caused him harm, he invoked Allah against him, for him to be killed by a dog. A lion tore him to pieces in Az-Zarqa in Greater Syria.

While he was delivering a sermon, a man complained to him about the drought.In response, he raised his hands to Allah and asked for rains. Although there were no traces of cloudsin the sky, suddenly the sky was overcast and the rain poured, and pured for a week. When trhe people complained of too much of rains, the Messenger of Allah, pbh, asked Allah to withhold the rains. Then the rain stopped.

At the battle of Trench, one thousand companions took part. With a few handfuls of wheat all ate to their fill, and had more food left than when they started eating.

The people of Khandaq were fed by a small amount of dates brought by the daughter of Bashir bin Sa'd for her father and her maternal uncle, Abdullah bin Rawahah.

On another occasion, he ordered Umar bin Al-Khattab to provide for four hundred horsemen with a small heap of dates. He did as he was commanded. From this small heap every man ate to his fill, and the heap remained as it was originally, without being diminished even by as much as a single date.

He fed eight men in the house of Abu Talha with a few loves of barley that Anas had brought under his arm.

He fed an army with the provisions brought by Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, until all of them ate to their fill. The remainder of it was brought back.

He was presented with a dish of food as a gift on the occasion of his marriage to Zainab. From that dish, he fed many people. The remaining food in the dish was more than what was originally given to him as a gift.

On the day of Hunain, he cast a handful of dust at the enemies. Allah defeated that army by causing the dust to frustrate their sight.Allah refers to this when He says: "And you (Muhammad, pbh,) threw not what you threw, but Allah threw." (Al-Anfal 8:17)

On the night of migration, he went out and threw dust at those who were there to kill him. About one hundred men were there. As a result of throwing of this dust, they were temporarily blinded. They could not see him when he left Makkah.

When Suraqah bin Malik bin Ju'shum followed him, intending to kill him, to get the prize proclaimed by the kafirs, the legs of his horse sank into the sand and he fell down. Suraqah then asked the Prophet, pbh, to save him. The Messenger of Allah, pbh, prayed to Allah and Allah saved Suraqah.

All the signs of the Messenger of Allah, pbh, presented here have been authenticated in the ahadith which are sahi and sound.

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