"...look into all things with a searching eye” - Baha'u'llah (Prophet Founder of the Baha'i Faith)

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Oct 23, 2017

Bats - the only mammals that fly

They eat insect pests. They pollinate useful plants, as bees do. Their droppings, called guano, are used as fertilizer.

Bats are mammals. They are the only mammals that fly. There are nearly 1,000 species of bats. They are found in all kinds of habitats. Bats live in tropical rain forests. They live in climates so cold that trees won’t grow there. Unlike other mammals, when bats rest they lower their body temperature to save energy. In very cold weather, they hibernate.

A bat’s wings are made of two layers of skin. The wings are supported by bones like those in a human hand. The thumbs have claws and lie outside the wings. The bat uses them to cling to the places where it roosts. These may be trees, caves, or even buildings. Muscles attached to the wings power the bat’s flight.

Bats come in many sizes. The largest is the Malayan flying fox. It is 16 inches (41 centimeters) long. Its wings span 5.6 feet (1.7 meters). The Kitti’s hog-nosed bat is the smallest of all mammals. It’s about an inch (3 centimeters) long—the size of a bumblebee—and is also known as the bumblebee bat.

Oct 10, 2017

Idrís

An imagining of Idris visiting Heaven 
and Hell
ʾIdrís is an ancient prophet and patriarch mentioned in the Qur'an, whom Muslims believe was the third prophet after Adam (as) and his son Sheath (as). Islamic tradition has unanimously identified Idris with the biblical Enoch, although many Muslim scholars of the classical and medieval periods also held that Idris and Hermes Trismegistus were the same person.

He is described in the Qur'an as "trustworthy" and "patient" and the Qur'an also says that he was "exalted to a high station", Because of this and other parallels, traditionally Idris has been identified with the Biblical Enoch, and Islamic tradition usually places Idris in the early Generations of Adam, and considers him one of the oldest prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, placing him sometime between Adam and Noah. Idris' unique status inspired many future traditions and stories surrounding him in Islamic lore.

According to a hadith [tradition], … it is said that on Muhammad's Night Journey, he encountered Idris in the fourth heaven. The traditions that have developed around the figure of Idris have given him the scope of a prophet as well as a philosopher and mystic, and many later Muslim mystic or Sufis… also mentioned having encountered Idris in their spiritual visions. 
(Adapted from Wikipedia Encyclopedia)