THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -8-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -8-
Gannets spend most of their time in the sea and form colonies on the rocks or on islands, where they lay their eggs. Gannets living in the northern hemisphere lay one egg, and those in the southern hemisphere lay two. Left alone by their parents when they are only three months old, the young go out to forage for food. Most often, they start to fly as soon as they leave the nest.
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Young storks in the forests of Thailand have a very original way of being protected from the heat. The mother and father bring water in their bills and empty it on the babies whose feathers have not yet grown. This cold shower makes the babies comfortable for a while, but it is not enough. They also need shade.
Again this need is met by the parents' self-sacrifice. They spread open their wings to protect their young against the strong rays of the sun.
Storks are among the best parents in the world, considering the care, attachment and self-sacrifice that they show towards their young. When we look at the natural world, we always encounter the same fact: Allah has created every living thing. Each creature, with its wonderful characteristics, is a proof of the reality of creation. Allah is the Lord of all the wonders of creation in heaven, on Earth and in between. Thinking people should consider Allah’s creation and praise Him for it.
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For living creatures, Africa’s heat can sometimes be fatal. For this reason, many animals look for shady places where they can protect themselves from the direct sun. The ostrich of South Africa thinks about her eggs and her chicks more than herself when she protects them from the heat. She stands over them and often opens her wings so that the sun’s heat will not strike her eggs or hatchlings. But in doing this, this creature subjects her own body to the sun’s rays. The reason for this behavior, as with other creatures, is because ostriches act by Allah’s inspiration. The ostrich is just another creature into which Allah has inspired a sense of tenderness and protectiveness:
… Everything in the heavens and Earth, willingly or unwillingly, submits to Him and to Him you will be returned. (Surah Al ‘Imran: 83)
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Dolphins protect their young from the moment they are born. Immediately before giving birth, the mother dolphin begins to move more slowly and other female dolphins, seeing this, assist her when she is in labor. These helpers swim on either side of the mother dolphin to protect her and, when the baby is born, make sure that it gets up to the water's surface to take its first breath.
For the first two weeks, the baby never leaves the mother's side. Within a short time after its birth the baby learns to swim and gradually ventures farther and farther away from its mother. The new mother cannot keep up with her baby's swift, rapid movements; and so cannot give it sufficient protection. In this situation, the helper female dolphins come on the scene to provide the baby with excellent defense.30
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Creatures caring for one another's welfare is a clear challenge to Darwinists, who believe that this kind of behavior-that is, one creature assisting another-is of no use for an individual animal's survival. On the contrary, they believe that such acts can put a "selfless" animal's life at risk.
The self-sacrificial behavior of mother dolphins can be seen when they put half of their own food, already digested, into the mouths of their babies. Another example of such behavior is dolphins helping one of their number when it is injured. Instead of fleeing, they exhibit behavior that poses considerable risk to their own lives.31
Dolphins act in concert to protect their young from sharks. One or two dolphins will swim out to attract the shark's attention. When the shark turns to follow this decoy, other dolphins attack strongly from other directions; one advances swiftly from behind the others striking the shark's side with their noses. Typically the shark gives up, but dolphins have sometimes even killed sharks in this way.32
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Seahorses live on warm ocean reefs where they can hide among the seaweed, coral and sponges. Their thick, hard skin serves as armor against their enemies; they have eyes that can look in several directions at once which help them catch their prey. The male seahorse has a pouch similar to that of the female kangaroo. At mating time, the female seahorse deposits many eggs in this pouch where they remain for six weeks. The male seahorse feeds the eggs in his pouch with a fluid until they develop into miniature seahorses, and he provides oxygen for them by means of capillaries in the inner tissues of the incubation pouch.33
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When their mating season comes, sea turtles crawl onto the beach in numbers. But it is not just any beach they come to; it is the beach where they were born. Sometimes they have to travel 800 kilometers (498 miles) to reach their birthplace. At the end of their journey, they lay their eggs and bury them under the sand. So, why do they always gather at the same beach at the same time? If they did so at a different time and on a different beach, would their young survive?
When we try to answer this question, we meet a very interesting situation. The tiny turtles that hatch from the eggs weigh only about 31 grams (1.1 ounce) and a single turtle cannot dig its way up through the layer of sand above them. But with them all helping one another, the job is easily done. Soon they emerge to the surface of the sand altogether and hurry towards the sea.
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How do these new hatchlings know that they have to dig through to the top of the sand? Who taught them that they must make their way towards an ocean that they have never seen? These tiny creatures could not do this with their own intelligence, so, where does this conscious behavior come from? There is only one answer to this question: Allah has inspired this conscious behavior into sea turtles.
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Meerkats live in communities, and because of the dangers that exist in their environment, their support for one another is of vital importance for their survival. Every morning, meerkats first do a security check before spreading out into the surrounding area to find food.
Every individual in the community has his own job to do. For example, some meerkats stand guard to ensure the safety of the others, and watch for hours under the blazing sun without eating or drinking anything. If the guard sees some danger, he gives the alarm to warn his friends. Hearing this alarm, the other meerkats run to take refuge in the burrow.
The group's most important task is to rear and protect their young, and the young females are chiefly responsible for looking after the babies. Every day, one of them stays in the burrow to tend the young. The cooperation and mutual assistance in the group ensures that the babies will remain safe.34
It is Allah Who has taught meerkats the supportive and self-denying behavior they show towards one another.
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A baby antelope takes between five and ten minutes to be born. During this time, it is difficult for the mother to move, and she is defenseless against her enemies. But while she gives birth, the mother is not alone. All the while there is another female at her side to provide support and protection.
From the moment it is born, the baby has no time to lose. The mother immediately nudges it with her nose to get it to take some steps. But its legs are weak, and it falls down. It gets up again and takes a few more steps. Within a few minutes, it is trotting by its mother's side and never leaves her because if it did, the young antelope would go hungry or be killed by wild animals.35
Everything in nature is the work of the eternal knowledge and power of Allah. With His supreme power, compassion, mercy, intelligence, knowledge and wisdom, He has given baby antelopes the strength to run at their mothers’ side within a very short time.
 Among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and Earth and all the creatures He has spread about in them. And He has the power to gather them together whenever He wills.(Surat ash-Shura: 29) |
A mother rhinoceros gives birth to a baby that weighs only 4% of her own weight. Within one hour of its birth, a baby rhinoceros can stand up with its little armored body. Mother and baby spend a few weeks in a remote location, apart from others and come to recognize each other's scent.
Mother and baby spend all their time together until the next baby is born, between three and five years later. The baby rhino mostly follows behind its mother. Even though it stops nursing at two years of age, it still stays at her side and remains with her throughout her next pregnancy. Almighty Allah has given the rhinoceros the instinct to protect and patiently look after her young.36
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As a family, the mother cheetah and her offspring are very attached to one another. The mother performs many selfless acts while rearing her young. In order to feed them, she often goes hungry, losing nearly half her weight. If she must, she will even give her own life for her kittens. For example, a lion is a great threat to baby cheetahs. Without hesitation, the mother will throw herself into the lion's path and, putting her own life in jeopardy, she draws the lion's attention away from her young to herself, giving them time to run away. This kind of altruistic behavior calls for consideration.
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If this mammal were, as the evolutionists propose, a creature that assembled itself by chance through untold generations and by acting with selfish concern only for its own survival, we would expect it to flee and desert its young. Yet the cheetah does not do this, but confronts the lion and, if necessary, gives up her own life. Surely, it is Allah Who gives mother cheetahs this exemplary sense of self-sacrifice.
Squirrels carry their young in their teeth by the loose skin on their abdomens. If her nest is destroyed, a mother squirrel will carry her babies to another place tirelessly, no matter how far away it is. She carries away one baby and returns to the old nest, time after time, until she is convinced that all have been safely removed.37
30. Janine M. Benyus, The Secret Language
and Remarkable Behavior of Animals, p. 313; "Port Phillip Bay's Smiling
Ambassadors,"
Troy Muir; www.polperro.com.au/s9.html)
31. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, p. 224.
32. Russell Freedman, How Animals Defend Their Young, p. 66-67.
33. A. Vincent, "The Improbable Seahorse," National Geographic, October
1994, pp. 126-140.
34. "Slender Tailed Meerkat," Wellington Zoo;
www.wellingtonzoo.com/animals/animals/mammals/meerkat.html
35. "Antelope," Animal Bytes;
www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-antelope.html
36. Janine M. Benyus, The Secret Language and Remarkable Behavior of
Animals,
p. 186.
37. Red Squirell;
www.yptenc.org.uk/docs/factsheets/animal_facts/red_squirrel.html
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -7-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -7-
This mutual assistance among wolves shows the self-sacrifice of which animals are capable and gives the lie to evolutionists who claim that animals are merely selfish. A hummingbird's nest is about half the size of a golf ball, but one of its most striking features is that as the babies grow, the nest expands automatically. This is because the parent hummers weave together tree bark, moss and plant stems with very strong, pliable spiders' webs. How can these tiny birds know to choose such an ideally useful material for the construction of their nests? Like every creature on Earth, hummingbirds act by Allah’s inspiration and, with this intelligence and foresight given by Allah, are able to make their babies comfortable.
When most baby birds hatch, they are blind and lack feathers. Mother birds must attend to their fledglings' every need. Even after they leave the nest, their mothers typically follow them to make sure that they can fend for themselves. Our Lord protects and looks after all His creatures; it is He Who inspires the hummingbird with intelligent forethought to build nests that can stretch and expand; and gives other species a sense of responsibility toward its young.
Ocean terns build their nests in communal groups on islands surrounded by water, but even so, these nests are not completely safe. They can be easily reached by the winged thieves. Building their nests beside those of their neighbors affords the terns protection from danger from above. Staying apart from everyone else lets a predator focus all its attention on you, but being immersed in a group means that you have less probability of being singled out for attack. Besides, neighboring birds can assist in driving away an attacker. Birds arrange their nesting colonies as if they knew this. Allah looks after and protects every living creature.25
The albatross has the widest wingspan of all birds, reaching 3.5 meters (11.5 feet). These birds take characteristically great care in building nests to protect their eggs and their young. During the mating season, they gather together in colonies-but weeks before the females come, the males arrive to repair already-existing nests.
Albatrosses sit on the eggs in their well prepared nests for 50 days without moving. Like some other species of animals, albatrosses perform great acts of self-sacrifice on behalf of their offspring. Allah teaches these animals to think about the welfare of their young, to feed and protect them. It is He Who looks after and protects every living creature. The food and water an embryonic chick needs to develop is present in the egg, whose yoke contains protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. The gelatinous white serves to store a constant supply of water. Besides this, the chick needs to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide; they also need a source of heat, calcium to develop its bones, and a system to prevent bacterial infection and to protect against physical trauma. The eggshell serves all these purposes. The chick absorbs oxygen and releases carbon dioxide through a layer filled with capillaries on the inner surface of the shell membrane. It does not use its lungs to breathe as adult birds do, but exchanges air through small pores in the shell.
But that eggshell nevertheless needs to be strong enough to ensure the proper functioning of gasses, water and heat within it. It needs to be resistant enough to protect the embryo from external trauma and from the weight of the mother as she sits on the nest. But the egg does all these things perfectly. Allah , Who holds everything in heaven and Earth in His control, gives us such examples to make us aware of His flawless creation. Ducks, like all water birds, have hollow bones-one reason why they are able to float on the water. Ducks also have air sacks in their bodies that resemble little balloons. When they fill with air, they help them float on the water.
When a duck wants to dive, it pumps the air out of the sacks. With very little air left in its body, its buoyancy is decreased and it can easily go under the water. Ducks can fly at speeds of more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) an hour. In addition, often they change their direction when flying to avoid falling prey to wild animals. When they want to dive beneath the water, they do it so quickly that they make very difficult targets for hunters.26
The babies of diving birds like grebes travel on their mothers' backs when they are swimming on the water's surface. In order to keep them from falling off, the mother spreads her wings out slightly and feeds them by stretching her head back and to one side. When the young are first hatched, the mother and father make them eat feathers they have collected from the water's surface or plucked from their own bodies. Every baby swallows quite a lot of feathers, which are difficult for them to digest, but are not really intended as food.
Rather than being digested, these feathers collect in the babies' stomach-for a very important reason. Later on, fish bones and other indigestible bits of food will collect there, and so the feathers prevent injury to the babies' delicate stomachs and digestive systems. This habit of eating feathers will stay with the birds for their whole lives-a very important precaution to ensure that these fish-eating birds survive.27
The characteristics of water birds, and of every creature in the natural world, prove the existence of a Creator. That almighty and eternally powerful Creator is Allah . Every creature behaves in the way that God has determined. The noted biologist, Prof. Jeffrey P. Schloss, writes about the contradiction between Darwinism and animals' self-sacrificial behavior: Because natural selection by definition eliminates traits that reduce reproductive success relative to others, any trait that entails a reduction in fitness while increasing the fitness of others (i.e., "biological sacrifice") will be eliminated from populations. Biological altruism, defined as genetically "self-destructive behaviour performed for the benefit of others," is incompatible with Darwinism.28
Within hours of their birth, baby cranes can walk well enough, to leave their nest and begin to follow their parents around. Parents and babies use a special sound to communicate with one another. The parents make a soft murmur, but when in danger or trouble, the babies make a more high-pitched sound to which the parents immediately respond. In the mating season, both parents stay on the ground to guard the spot where they will build their nest. After the female lays her eggs, both parents take turns sitting on the nest throughout the day. But toward the end of the incubation period, this alteration becomes more frequent. In this way, both birds are free to move about and feed themselves. The time the eggs hatch corresponds to the time when the insects appear that will be food for the babies. This timing is vitally important for cranes, since they have to migrate before winter comes-and before that time, the young have to grow, develop and gain strength. These and all other similar features in the life of a crane are the work of Allah , the All-Powerful Creator.
When baby swans are born, they are brown or cream-colored and very ugly. They emerge from their eggs with short necks and covered with thick down, and they can run and swim within a few hours. The mother and father swans look after them for a few months until they finally turn into magnificent adults. In order to keep their eggs warm as they develop, Trumpeter swans sit on them. They only get up from time to time to turn the eggs over. In this way, the heat is distributed equally. Surely, it is Allah Who inspires in swans the kind of care their eggs will need.29 |
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25. David Attenborough,
Life of Birds, Princeton University Press, New Jersey: 1998, p. 221.
26. National Geographic, November 1984, p. 581.
27. David Attenborough, Life of Birds, p. 256.
28. William Dembski, Mere Creation, Science, Faith & Intelligent
Design, InterVarsity
Press, USA, 1998, p. 238; [Wilson 1975, 578]
29. Roger B. Hirschland, How Animals Care for Their Babies, p. 6.
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -6-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -6-
Even though baby deer can stand up right after they are born, they are essentially helpless and cannot walk until later. So meanwhile, how are they protected from their enemies?
Until it can run as fast as its mother, a baby deer's best protection is to hide. Because of the dead-leaf color of its fur and the spotted designs it is virtually invisible in its underbrush environment. The mother deer hides its baby in the forest where the white spots on the baby's reddish brown fur blend with dappled sunlight. When its mother is away foraging, the baby lies down and waits, motionless. Usually the mother deer is always somewhere nearby but, to avoid drawing attention to her baby, she rarely approaches it closely except for short visits.23
How does the baby deer know that it must hide to protect
itself? How
does it know that the spots of its fur will blend with the
overhanging
vegetation and that enemies will not perceive it if it stays
completely
still?
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 Say: “Who is the Lord of the heavens and the Earth?” Say: “Allah.” Say: “So why have you taken protectors apart from Him who possess no power to help or harm themselves?” Say: “Are the blind and seeing equal? Or are darkness and light the same? Or have they assigned partners to Allah who create as He creates, so that all creating seems the same to them?” Say: “Allah is the Creator of everything. He is the One, the All-Conquering.” (Surat ar-Ra’d: 16) |
 What is in the heavens and in the Earth belongs to Allah. Allah suffices as a guardian. (Surat an-Nisa’: 132) |
 Say :Have you thought about your partner gods, those you call upon besides Allah? Show me what they have created of the Earth…” (Surah Fatir: 40 |
 Do not set up another god together with Allah. Truly I bring you a clear warning from Him. (Surat adh-Dhariyat: 51) |
 The Unseen of the heavens and the Earth belongs to Allah and the whole affair will be returned to Him. So worship Him and put your trust in Him… (Surah Hud: 123) |
 … He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it… (Surat al-An’am: 59) |
Surely, the baby cannot know these things by itself. These features and behavior are inspired in it by Almighty Allah, Who knows all creatures’ needs and protects them:
Everything in the heavens and everything in the Earth belongs to Him. He is the Most High, the Magnificent. (Surat ash-Shura: 4)
Shortly after birth, baby mountain goats must move on and follow their mothers, or they will remain unprotected. Allah has created every creature with perfection and has given it all the special characteristics it may require.
When baby mountain goats are born, they can hear and see. Their hair has already grown long enough to protect them against the cold, and they start to climb steep slopes with their mothers soon after they are born.24
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Wolves are thought of as one of the most savage animals in the
natural
world, yet both parents look after their babies together. A
basic wolf
pack comprises an alpha male, a female, newborn cubs and
sometimes one
or two young wolves. Females in the pack assist each other.
Sometimes,
one will stay in the den all night to look after the pups, which
allows
their mothers to go hunting.
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 He is Allah--the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form… (Surat Al-Hashr: 24) |
 Mankind! Remember Allah’s blessing to you. Is there any creator other than Allah providing for you from heaven and Earth? There is no god but Him. So how have you been led astray? (Surah Fatir: 3) |
 And mankind and beasts and livestock are likewise of varying colors. Only those of His servants with knowledge have fear of Allah...(Surah Fatir: 28) |
22. David
Attenborough, The Trials of Life, pp. 30-33.
23. Russell Freedman, How Animals Defend Their Young, pp. 47-48.
24. Roger B. Hirschland, How Animals Care for Their Babies, National
Geographic
Society, Washington D.C.: 1987, p. 8.
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -5-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -5-
A researcher once put a heat-sensing device in the roof of a den, with some very interesting results. When the temperature outside fell to as much as -30° C (-22° F), the air in the den never went below 2 or 3° C (36-37° F).
Of course, it’s impossible that a polar bear could plan such a den on its own, much less ensure that it maintained the proper temperature. It is Allah, with His limitless knowledge and eternal power, Who teaches polar bears to do these things. In the Qur’an, He tells us about His sovereignty over living creatures: Everyone in the heavens and Earth belongs to Him. All are submissive to Him. (Surat ar-Rum: 26)
Shortly after mother penguins lay their eggs, winter comes. The females leave their nests to the male penguins and go back to the sea in search of food. In order to keep her egg from freezing, the father penguin carries it on the tops of his feet. His thick feathers will protect the egg from the cold.
This is a very difficult period for male penguins, since they must remain in the exact same place and cannot forage for food. Tiny baby penguins are born in the spring.
They have not yet developed the layer of fat that will protect them from the cold, so they remain on the top of their fathers' feet. Their first food is the gruel that their fathers have stored in their craw. Although the father penguin has not eaten in three months, he performs a great act of self-sacrifice by not swallowing the food stored in his craw, but keeps it for his offspring. At exactly this time, the mother penguins return from the sea. They have not been idle for those three months, but have been hunting continually and bring back a store of food in their craws for their babies after they hatch. And as soon as they return and feed their young, they return to the sea again-this time, to hunt for the fathers who have been without nourishment for four months now.19 Why a penguin would remain without food for four months and endure the cold for four months for the sake of its young? Proponents of the theory of evolution cannot explain it. Who inspires all penguins to perform such great acts of self-sacrifice? Who makes the males shelter their young on their feet for four months? To these questions, there is only one answer: Allah has created penguins. He has taught them all to perform these extraordinary acts of self-sacrifice in order to perpetuate their species. The females of the musk ox, which lives in Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, give birth to their young in May. Within one hour after its birth, baby musk oxen can stand up and follow their mothers around. When they encounter an enemy, musk oxen face the aggressor, form a circle and push the young inside it. Each adult musk ox weighs between 350 and 400 kilograms (772 and 882 pounds), and by standing shoulder to shoulder, they form a veritable shield between their babies and any enemy. Every individual making up the circle will attack the enemy and return again to the circle so that it is not broken and the young remain protected. Evolutionists, who claim that nature is rife with cruelty and aggression, cannot explain this self-sacrificial behavior of musk oxen. There is only one explanation for this self-sacrifice: Allah, the Lord of all, in His supreme power has inspired in every creature these acts of self-sacrifice and extraordinary ways of protecting its young.20
All mammal babies spend a period of time in their mother's womb, and when they come into the world, not all are fully developed. A newborn kangaroo is no bigger than a bean, and its legs have only just begun to develop. When first born, baby kangaroos are blind. For this reason, the mother kangaroo's furry pouch is a very important place of security for the babies. This pouch expands as the baby grows and there are special muscles at its entrance that prevents the babies from falling out. When the mother goes into the water, these muscles prevent it from entering the pouch.21
The kangaroo's milk is exactly what her baby needs. Over time, as the baby grows, the proportion of fat and other nutrients in the composition of the milk changes.
When the first baby is born and begins to nurse a second baby kangaroo is born immediately afterwards, and it too receives precisely the kind of milk that it can digest most easily. Then when her third baby is born, the mother begins producing three different kinds of milk, each with different nutrients! Each baby can easily locate the milk especially prepared for it; there is no confusion. Clearly this feeding system is the result of a special creation. No mother kangaroo could possibly organize this system consciousl.22 How is it that these three different kinds of milk are delivered through three different ducts? How can an animal unknowingly calculate the compositions of the milk needed by its three different-sized babies? Even if it could, how could it produce it in its own body? Certainly, no kangaroo can perform any of this on its own; she does not even realize that her body produces three different kinds of milk. This extraordinary production is due to the wonder in Allah's creation of the kangaroos: … No female becomes pregnant or gives birth except with His knowledge. And no living thing lives long or has its life cut short without that being in a Book. That is easy for Allah. (Surah Fatir: 11) When baby raccoons are six months old, they leave their tree nests with their mother in search of food. Following the instructions their mothers give them, gradually they become skilled at hunting. Inspired by Allah, mother raccoons always look after their babies and protect them. Like all other animals, raccoons are under Allah’s protection..
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19. David Attenborough, The
life of
Birds, pp. 290-291. |
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -4-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -4-
In the middle of winter when brown bears are hibernating, their cubs are born blind and naked, without fur. They are the size of a chipmunk and have only enough strength to climb to the teats where they can find their milk. The female's milk is rich in calories and fat, and during the winter the cubs grow quickly. When their mother awakens up in the spring, the cubs are strong enough to follow her out of the den.
The cubs are very active and once outside, quite vulnerable. For a year they stay with their mother, who protects them from every danger while they learn how to look after themselves. Because they are fed constantly for a certain length of time, they grow quickly. Always playing games, they try to climb on top of their mother and wrestle with each other. Like other animal parents, mother bears can be very ferocious towards intruders who may want to harm their cubs. For three years, the mother bear looks after and protects her cubs constantly.14
In the regions where seals live, spring temperatures seldom reach -5° C (23° F). But seals do not mind the cold, because their fur and stored body fat keeps them warm. Seals live in large herds, so how can a mother seal recognize her own cub in such a crowded environment? As do many other animals, she smells and fondles her baby after giving birth. Coming to recognize its scent, she never confuses it with other babies.
Baby seals are completely helpless and unable to protect themselves, but their mothers supply their every need. They are born covered with a layer of baby fat that insulates their tiny bodies and helps keep them always warm. The young of very few mammals grow as rapidly as baby seals do. Within three weeks, their weight increases three or four times! This is because seals' milk is twelve times fattier than cows' milk, with four times as much protein. This lets the babies grow very fast, and much of their mother's fatty milk is immediately transformed into a protective layer of fat in their bodies.15
Allah has created every creature in the best way, supplying its daily food and looking after all its needs: How many creatures do not carry their provision with them! Allah provides for them and He will for you. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Surat al-’Ankabut: 60) Beneath the skin of polar bears, a layer of fat 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) thick serves as insulation. This lets them swim continuously for 100 kilometers (62 miles) in icy water at a speed of 10 kmph (6.2 mph). Polar bears are also equipped with a very acute sense of smell; able to smell carrion-a dead whale, for example-from as far as 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, and can sniff out seal dens covered with snow.16 Polar bear babies are usually born in the middle of winter, very small, furless and blind. They need a den to live in order to survive the subzero winter cold. But female polar bears make dens only when they are pregnant or have babies. Under banks of snow, they make their dens-round spaces about half a meter (1.6 feet) in diameter which they enter through a tunnel two meters long (6.5 feet).
Usually polar bears make more than one room in their dens, and typically place them at a level higher than the den's entrance. In this way, the warm air in the rooms, which naturally rises, is prevented from escaping through the entrance-because at the entrance to their dens, the bears always leave a channel open wide enough for air to pass through it.17 A mother polar bear constructs the roof of her shelter to be from 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) to 2 meters (6.6 feet) thick. Because of this special construction design, heat is retained.18 |
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14. Catherine D. Hughes, "Brown
Bears,"
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/creature_feature/0010/brownbears2.html
15. David Attenborough, The Trials of Life, pp. 36-38; Fort Wayne
Children's Zoo,
ZAP, "Bringing Up Baby;"
http://www.kidszoo.com/pdfs/BrUpBaby.pdf
16. "Polar Bears," SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal Information Database,
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/PolarBears/pbadaptations.html;
Stirling, 1988;
"Polar Bear,"
www.wonderclub.com/Wildlife/mammals/PolarBear.htm
17. Thor Larsen, "Polar Bear: Lonely Nomad of the North," National
Geographic,
April 1971, p. 574.
18. International Wildlife, November-December 94, p. 15.
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -3-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -3-
On the other hand, a male duck uses his brightly colored feathers to protect his females, diverting the attention of enemies while she is building the nest or sitting on it.
If trouble approaches the nest, the male immediately takes flight, making a lot of noise; doing everything he can to lead the enemy away from the nest. These acts of self-sacrifice, vitally important for baby ducklings’ survival, sometimes end with the death of a parent and provide yet another example of Allah’s creative artistry.
One of the most noticeable characteristics of elephants is their attachment to one another. Acts of self-sacrifice and assistance occur not only among families but throughout the entire herd. For example, when hunters shoot at members of the herd, the other elephants do not flee but hurry toward those in danger.
The young elephants are the reason behind this tightly knit cohesion of the whole group.11 A newborn elephant receives great love and tenderness from adults in the herd. If a mother elephant dies, another lactating elephant will continue to suckle it.12
For the first six months, a mother will follow her baby elephant wherever it goes. Each makes sounds that keep them continually in touch with each other. If the baby makes the indication that it's in any danger, all members of the herd come together to investigate the situation-a tactic that is quite good at dissuading enemies.13
This raises some questions: Why is it that all elephants act in concert on behalf of their young? How can they determine their needs? How do elephants and other animals understand one another since before they are born?
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 And horses, mules and donkeys both to ride and for adornment. And He creates other things you do not know. (Surat an-Nahl: 8) |
 All That inhabits the night and the day belongs to Him. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Surat al-An’am: 13) |
 Do you not know that Allah is He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the Earth belongs and that, besides Allah, you have no protector and no helper? (Surat al-Baqara: 107) |
 To mankind the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colors: women and children, and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and horses with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is merely the enjoyment of the life of this world. The best homecoming is in the Presence of Allah. (Surah Al ‘Imran: 14) |
 When swift horses, champing at the bit, were displayed before him in the afternoon, he said, “Truly do I love the love of good, with a view to the glory of my Lord…” (Surah Sad: 31-33) |
None of these creatures can manage these accomplishments through their own intelligence and willpower. The fact that elephants in every part of the world assist one another in these ways is an indication that a single Creator created them all; and that Creator is Allah with His limitless power. The amazing acts of self-sacrifice among animals form one of the wonders of His creation. In the Qur’an, Allah says:
The kingdom of the heavens and Earth belongs to Allah. Allah has power over all things. (Surah Al ‘Imran: 189)
A mother zebra will risk her life to save her baby. If an enemy attacks, she uses her body as a shield between her foal and the attacker. Although she can run much faster, she runs much more slowly so that, if a predator animal catches up with them, she will fall victim and not her baby. As a result of one of these dangerous encounters, the mother zebra may expose herself to death and even lose her life to protect her baby-behavior that cannot be explained by the imaginary theory of evolution.
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All animals in the natural world are engaged in a struggle. They hunt to survive and may attack when they have to defend themselves. Evolutionists take only these characteristics into account, disregarding the acts of self-sacrifice that animals employ to protect their young. In addition, behavioral patterns of cooperation, support and concern for the welfare of other creatures are frequently encountered in the animal world.
Because the theory of evolution regards the natural world as a battlefield, it can't explain the instances of self-sacrifice that occur there. The way animals live in the natural world clearly invalidates the basic claim of this theory. It cannot explain why a zebra that had run away to safety from its enemies returns at the risk of its own life and rescues other zebras surrounded by those enemies.
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The self-sacrificial and cooperative behavior exhibited by animals is clear proof of the fact that the theory of evolution is untenable. Allah is the Supreme Creator Who has made the universe and every creature acts by His inspiration:
Allah created every animal from water. Some of them go on their bellies, some of them on two legs, and some on four. Allah creates whatever He wills. Allah has power over all things. (Surat an-Nur: 45)
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It is unthinkable that acts of self-sacrifice by living creatures could result from millions of years of evolution. The intelligent behavior exhibited by animals is not a strategy they have developed over time, nor a solution produced by chance. We can't possibly expect intelligent, self-sacrificial behavior from a creature that is supposedly the product of natural selection, struggling to prolong its own lifespan in a savage world. The evident foresight and planning that animals display destroys Darwinism's basic assumption, that every creature is engaged in a self-centered battle for its own individual survival.
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Creation is the only way to explain all of these animals’ special characteristics. The instances of mutual support and intelligent strategy in every species clearly demonstrate Allah’s dominion over living creatures. All the abilities they possess, as well as their intelligent behavior, are taught to them by Allah, the Creator of all, Who teaches them and shows them how to use their abilities. In His endless compassion and mercy, He protects and looks after all His creatures.
11. Janine M. Benyus, The
Secret Language
and Remarkable Behavior of Animals, p.136
12. David Attenborough, Trials of Life, William Collins Sons & Co.
Ltd, London:
1990, p.50
13. Janine M. Benyus, The Secret Language and Remarkable Behavior of
Animals,
p. 155.
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -2-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -2-
In Surat an-Nahl in the Qur'an, God gives the example of the
honeybee
to demonstrate the extraordinary secrets in the behavior of
living creatures.
Not only honeybees, but all living things behave according to
God's inspiration.
It is He Who inspires acts of self-sacrifice in living creatures
and gives
them their wonderful abilities.Lions are among of the strongest
predators
in the African continent. They can be very savage towards their
enemies
and their prey, but very tender towards their own young. When
baby lions
are born, they are very small. They begin to eat meat at the age
of three
months, but the mother and other female lions in the pride
continue to
suckle them until they are six months old.
Lions, leopards and other big cats carry their young by the scruff of their neck, and while they are being carried, their babies stay completely still, allowing their mothers to carry them safely.
The care and tenderness that lions show for their young is only one of the proofs that invalidates the claims of evolutionists. They claim that in the natural world only the strong survive; the weak are eliminated and die off. The world of nature, they claim, is dominated by self-interest and a savage struggle for survival. Of course, creatures in their natural habitats hunt to provide themselves with food, and sometimes may even attack to defend themselves and ensure their security. But apart from this, the majority of animals in nature performs remarkable acts of self-sacrifice for their young, their families, and even for other members of their group, placing their own lives in danger.
Almighty Allah, the Creator of all things, teaches these
creatures to be tender and compassionate towards their young, to
protect other members of their herds or flocks, and to care for them.
When their young are in danger, mother animals behave differently than usual. Deer, for example, are usually timid and excitable creatures, but don't hesitate to use their sharp, cutting hooves against any fox or coyote that threatens their young. If they understand that they cannot repel an enemy threatening their fawns, they immediately throw themselves into the attacker's path, to divert the enemy away from their young.9
Why do these animals put their own lives in danger to protect their young? As stated earlier, proponents of evolutionary theory assert that the world of nature is a battlefield, where creatures are in a constant struggle with one another in which the strong dominate and the weak are killed or die off. But this claim is very erroneous: As is the case with deer, many creatures are willing to risk their lives to protect their young, which fact by itself shows clearly how unreasonable the claims of evolutionists are.
With His supreme power, Allah has created gazelles, antelopes, elephants, birds and every other living thing. He is Lord of everything on Earth and in heaven. For a few days after giving birth, a mother giraffe licks and sniffs at her baby. In this way, she both cleans it and learns its scent, which will later allow mother and baby to find each other in a large herd. If the young giraffe is in any kind of difficulty, it makes various vocalizations to attract the mother's attention. She immediately recognizes her baby's voice and runs to its assistance. A mother giraffe never lets her young leave her side. If they are attacked, she pushes the baby under her body and strikes out at the enemy, hard, with her two front legs.
Giraffes live in small herds and look after their young together, and adults take turns caring for the young. Because of this cooperative system of "babysitting," other mother giraffes can leave their babies and go kilometers away in search of food.10 All the beautiful creatures in the natural world show us the majesty of Allah. And we must always be mindful of His existence and thank Him for all the blessings He has given us. In the Qur’an, Allah has told us that we must be thankful to Him for everything: Allah brought you out of your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and hearts so that perhaps you would show thanks. (Surat an-Nahl: 78)
One factor that helps ducks swim so well is their webbed feet. When they push their feet out behind them, the webs spread out to give them more surface area to propel them. Baby ducklings have this ability from the moment of their birth. Allah, with His unlimited knowledge, has created ducks with everything they need to survive. The feathers of a female duck are less colorful than those of the male. This difference in color is an important advantage for the females, who must sit on her eggs in the nest; their lack of bright color makes them less visible to predators as they wait for their eggs to hatch. They blend with their environment, and because of this camouflage it is harder for their enemies to notice them.
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9. Russell
Freedman, How
Animals Defend Their Young, E. Dutton, New York: 1978, p. 57.
10. Janine M. Benyus, The Secret Language and Remarkable Behavior of
Animals,
p.201
THE WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -1-
THE
WONDROUS BEAUTY IN ANIMALS -1-
Newborn kittens are blind and defenseless. They weigh about 100 grams, and their mother cat gets very little sleep as she looks after her tiny babies. She keeps her kittens close beside her so that they are always kept warm and so that she can nurse them when they are hungry. Although their eyes are closed for the first week, her kittens have no trouble finding the nipples where they can get life-giving milk-their mother's milk-exactly what they need in order to live and grow. It is rich in nutrients and contains some special chemical ingredients that protect the kitten from getting sick.
 Is He Who creates like him who does not create? So will you not pay heed? (Surat an-Nahl: 17) |
Nine days later, their eyes open, but the kittens are able to fend for themselves only after eight weeks. Until then, their mothers look after them with great care and carry them to secure places to play and to rest.
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 Allah shows favor to mankind but most of them are not thankful. (Surat an-Naml: 73) |
 Allah is the Creator of everything and He is Guardian over everything. (Surat az-Zumar: 62) |
 The merciful ones will be given mercy by the All-Merciful. Be merciful to those who are on this Earth, and the One in heaven will have mercy on you. (Sahih Bukhari) |
The devotion of these unthinking and unreasoning creatures to their young should make every intelligent individual pause to consider. Their behavior can come only from the inspiration of Allah, the Ruler of all living things:
There is no creature on the Earth which is not dependent upon Allah for its provision. He knows where it lives and where it dies. They are all in a Clear Book. (Surah Hud: 6)
Self-Sacrifice in Nature Proves Darwinism to be False
The theory of evolution claims that the natural world is the scene of merciless competition, and the theory’s supporters try to inculcate this idea into the minds of others. Actually, the erroneous belief that nature is simply an arena of struggle has been a part of the theory since evolution was first proposed. The mechanism of “natural selection” promulgated by Darwin, the theory’s author, proposes that creatures strong enough to adapt to their natural environment are able to survive and reproduce, while those that are too weak die off. According to this idea of “natural selection,” nature is a savage battleground where creatures contend with one another in merciless struggles for survival, and where the weak is killed by the strong.
According to this idea, every creature must be strong enough to overcome others, if its species is to survive. In such an environment, there is no room for self-sacrifice, altruism, or cooperation because these could prove disadvantageous. Accordingly, every creature must be entirely selfish, concerned only for its own personal food, security, and well-being.
But, is the natural world really an environment where creatures engage in pitiless combat with one another, where cruelly selfish individuals strive to outdo everyone else and destroy them?
No! The observations made in this regard do not agree with evolution. Nature is not merely the place of competition that evolutionists claim. On the contrary, many species offer countless instances of intelligent cooperation: One animal may sacrifice its own well-being to the point of risking death; yet another may put itself in danger for the sake of the flock or herd, with no possible promise of reward. In his book entitled Evrim Kurami ve Bagnazlik (The Theory of Evolution and Bigotry) Dr. Cemal Yildirim, a professor and himself an evolutionist, explains why Darwin and other evolutionists of his time thought as they did:
Scientists of the nineteenth century were easily misled into adopting the thesis that nature is a battlefield, because more often than not, they were imprisoned in their studies or laboratories and generally didn't bother to acquaint themselves with nature directly. Not even a respectable scientist like Huxley could exempt himself from this error.1
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In his book, Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution, the evolutionist Peter Kropotkin writes about the support that animals give to one another, citing the error that Darwin and his followers fell into:
... the numberless followers of Darwin reduced the notion of struggle for existence to its narrowest limits. They came to conceive the animal world as a world of perpetual struggle among half-starved individuals, thirsting for one another's blood… In fact, if we take Huxley, who certainly is considered as one of the ablest exponents of the theory of evolution, were we not taught by him, in a paper on the "Struggle for Existence and its Bearing upon Man," that, "from the point of view of the moralist, the animal world is on about the same level as a gladiators' show. The creatures are fairly well treated, and set to, fight hereby the strongest, the swiftest, and the cunningest live to fight another day."… [I]t may be remarked at once that Huxley's view of nature had as little claim to be taken as a scientific deduction.2
True; there is a struggle and conflict in the natural world. But along with this fact, there is also self-sacrifice, enough to prove that the idea of natural selection, so basic to the theory of evolution, is totally groundless. Natural selection does not add any new features to any given species, nor can it change existing features to create an entirely new species. These facts stop evolutionists in their tracks; and their stalemate in this regard is discussed in the journal Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology):
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The question is, why do living beings help one another? According to Darwin’s theory, every animal is fighting for its own survival and the continuation of its species. Helping other creatures would decrease its own probability of surviving, and therefore, evolution should have eliminated this type of behavior, whereas we observe that animals can indeed behave selflessly.3
These facts about the natural world completely invalidate evolutionists' claim that nature is an arena of self-interested struggle, where the individual who best protects his own interests comes out on top. With regard to these characteristics of living creatures, John Maynard Smith poses a question to his fellow evolutionists:
Here one of the key questions has to do with altruism: How is it that natural selection can favor patterns of behavior that apparently do not favor the survival of the individual?4
John Maynard Smith is an evolutionist scientist and evolutionists cannot give an answer in the name of their theory to the question he has asked. (For examples of the extraordinary self-sacrifice and mutual assistance among creatures in the world of nature, see Harun Yahya's, Devotion Among Animals Revealing the Work of Allah , Global Publishing, Istanbul: 2004)
EVOLUTION CANNOT EXPLAIN INSTINCT
Another deception evolutionists resort to is pointing to the similarities between animal and human behavior. On this basis; they claim that human beings and animals are descended from a common ancestor and that similar behaviors have been passed down from that ancestor to subsequent generations. Some evolutionists, viewing aggressive behavior as a universally inherited impulse or instinct, maintain that we humans have not yet found a way to suppress it in our daily lives. This intentionally deceptive claim rests on no other foundation besides evolutionists' imagination. We must be careful to point out that actually, the impulse or instinct supposed to reside in both human beings and animals brings the theory of evolution to an impasse and is enough to demonstrate its invalidity.
 Your god is Allah alone, there is no god but Him. He encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Surah Ta Ha: 98) |
 Allah. There is no God but Him. Praise be to Him in this world and the Hereafter. Judgment belongs to Him…(Surat al-Qasas: 70) |
Evolutionist scientists use the word instinct to describe certain behavior patterns that animals are born with, but they leave unanswered the questions of how creatures came to possess this instinct, how the first instinctual behavior patterns came about, and by what mechanism they are passed on from one generation to another.
In his book, The Great Evolution Mystery, the evolutionist and geneticist Gordon Rattray Taylor admits that with regard to instinct, there is an impasse in the theory:
If in fact behaviour is heritable, what are the units of behaviour which are passed on-for presumably there are units? No one has suggested an answer.5
Unlike Taylor, many evolutionists cannot make this admission, remain silent on the question, and try to gloss over it, offering answers that make no real sense. Actually, Charles Darwin himself realized that animals' instinctive behavior posed a serious danger to his theory. In his book, The Origin of the Species, he actually admitted as much-several times. Here is one such:
So wonderful an instinct as that of the hive-bee making its cells will probably have occurred to many readers, as a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.6
Darwinists commit another error by claiming that their supposed instinctual impulses have been passed down to us from preceding generations. From the scientific point of view, this "Lamarckian" way of thinking was proved to be false a century ago. So even evolutionist scientists themselves admit that instinctual impulses could not have evolved over generations! Gordon R. Taylor labels "pathetic" the claim that behavior patters are inherited by subsequent generations:
Biologists assume freely that such inheritance of specific behaviour patterns is possible, and indeed that it regularly occurs. Thus Dobzhansky roundly asserts: "All bodily structures and functions, without exception, are products of heredity realized in some sequence of environments. So are all forms of behaviour, without exception." This simply isn't true and it is lamentable that a man of Dobzhansky's standing should dogmatically assert it.7
Your Lord revealed to the bees: "Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow." From inside them comes a drink of varying colors, containing healing for mankind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Surat an-Nahl: 68-69)
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 Allah created the heavens and the Earth with truth. There is certainly a Sign in that for the believers. (Surat al-’Ankabut: 44) |
1. Cemal Yildirim, Evrim
Kurami ve Bagnazlik [The Theory of Evolution and Bigotry], p. 49.
2. Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, 1902, Chapter
I.
3. Bilim ve Teknik [Science and Technology] - Turkish Scientific
Journal, no.190,
p. 4.
4. John Maynard Smith, "The Evolution of Behavior," Scientific
American,
December, 1978, volume 239, no.3, p. 176.
5. Gordon R. Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, Sphere Books,
London: 1984,
p. 221.
6. Charles Darwin, The Origin of
Species:
A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p.
233.
7. Gordon Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, p. 221.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Almost every newborn creature is weak and helpless, unaware of the dangers that surround it. It is very unlikely that it could survive and grow on its own. From the moment it is born it will always have adults nearby to feed it, protect it from danger and, if necessary, sacrifice their own lives for it.
Young animals can survive only if they are looked after by strong grown-ups. A gazelle abandoned at birth or bird’s eggs left uncared for have no possibility of survival. But young animals usually can survive because they have careful parents who do not neglect their responsibilities, even before their young are still in the egg or the womb. Many creatures go to a lot of trouble to protect their eggs, hiding them where they will not get broken, keeping them warm and when necessary, protecting them from too much heat. They will guard over their eggs for weeks and even carry them around in their mouths without harming them in any way.
This book documents the tenderness that creatures have for their young and the conscious acts of self-sacrifice performed throughout the animal world. You will read about the great care taken by animal parents to build comfortable nests for their young. You will learn how they clean their offspring, how hard they work to feed them, protect them from cold, and even how they place their own lives in danger when an enemy is nearby.
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But why do these creatures work so tirelessly on behalf of their young? Why don’t they leave them on their own, instead of dutifully attending to all their needs? Do they do so consciously? For example, is it reasonable to think that a bird can be consciously determined to risk its own death to protect its young? Of course not! An animal cannot possess such feelings of tenderness and compassion on its own. The plain fact is that Allah has inspired in these creatures a wondrous sense of tenderness and parental love. And one of creation’s greatest wonders is the self-sacrifice of parents for their babies.
Another wonder is how cute all young animals are, as some examples in the following pages will show. Babies of most species usually have big eyes and round faces; and an expression that we humans interpret as innocent, helpless, and bewildered. Also, their behavior makes them loveable and awakens in us the instinct to protect them.
These qualities in young animals are manifestations of Allah’s gentle artistry (gentle in this sense also includes the ideas of “lovable,” “friendly,” “tame” and “docile”). As with everything else in the universe, these animals are submissive to Allah, as He reveals to us in the following verse:
… when everything in the heavens and Earth,
willingly or
unwillingly, submits to Him and to Him you will be returned... (Surah
Al ‘Imran: 83)
Intelligent Design, in other words Creation In order to create, Allah has no need to design
It’s important that the word “design” be properly understood.
That Allah has created a flawless design does not mean that He first
made a plan and then followed it. Allah, the Lord of the Earth and the
heavens, needs no “designs” in order to create. Allah is exalted above
all such deficiencies. His planning and creation take place at the same
instant.
Whenever Allah wills a thing to come about, it is enough for
Him just to say, “Be!”
As we are told in the verses of the Qur’an:
His command when He desires a thing is just to say to it, “Be!” and it is. (Surah Ya Sin: 82)
[Allah is] the Originator of the heavens and Earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, “Be!” and it is. (Surat al-Baqara: 117)