The Perfect Detail That Protects Ice-Dwelling Polar Bears

The Perfect Detail That Protects Ice-Dwelling Polar Bears

The human body contains many extraordinary systems. How they work, function uninterruptedly, take precautions in the face of difficulties, and never make a mistake is beyond belief. However, all living things on Earth, from giant whales to ants, from single-celled algae to tigers, have equally amazing features. It is literally miraculous that anyone witnessing this extraordinary state of affairs should still deny His works:

Even if We sent down angels to them, and the dead spoke to them, and We gathered together everything in front of them right before their eyes, they would still not believe unless Allah willed. The truth is that most of them are ignorant. (Surat al-An‘am, 111)

Take the example of polar bears, who live in a cold ice-shrouded environment. By grasping the surface of the ice via a vacuum effect, thanks to the cavities between its toes, a polar bear can travel long distances on ice. This web-like structure between its toes also enables it to walk at a speed of 10 km per hour (6.2 mph) and travel 100 km (62 miles) without resting. The apparently white hairs in its special 5 cm (2 in) thick fur are actually transparent and, because of their fiber optic properties, prevent heat loss and transmit the Sun’s warmth to the black hairs beneath. Immediately under the fur is a 10 cm (4 in) thick layer of fat that provides further protection against the cold. When it swims, its hairs form a protective shield by adhering to one another and serving as a waterproof diving suit. Thanks to all of these features, a polar bear can maintain its 37-degree body temperature under water or on the ice.

Such highly detailed and flawless structures, all of which are of the greatest importance for continued life on Earth, reveal that they could not have come about by chance. Moreover, scientists cannot produce them. Allah flawlessly creates all things. In the case of the polar bear, He  places this animal on the ice enables it to survive its harsh environment. This is a constant reminder of the greatness of Almighty Allah, Who creates the states and behavior of all things by His will:

And He has made everything in the heavens and on Earth subservient to you. It is all from Him. There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect. (Surat al-Jathiyyah, 13)

The Superior Details in a Pair of Eyes

When you look at these lines, an electric current traveling at 500 km per hour (310.7 mph) begins moving from your eyes to your brain by any of its 600,000 nerves. When the current is transmitted, you begin reading the lines before you.

The eye, which is connected to the brain by 600,000 nerves, receives and arranges 1.5 million signals simultaneously and sends them to the brain at 500 km per hour (310.7 mph). The eye is one of the most important manifestations of Allah’s sublime might and power.

The eye is linked to the brain by 600,000 nerves, which simultaneously receive and arrange 1.5 million messages at the same time and send them to the brain at 500 km an hour (310,7 mph). When you look at a single point, you actually see hundreds of different details that the eye distinguishes from all of the massages reaching it and then analyzes and forwards to the brain. While this book you are holding is quite close to you, the scene you see in the background is, at the same time, comparatively far away. And yet you see both of them with the same clarity, for not a single point in your line of sight is overlooked or unclear. No matter how detailed the view you are looking at is, even the image of a small ant that happens to be in your line of sight reaches your brain.

No camera or television could provide such a high degree of clearness, and so all man-made technology is inferior to the human eye. If people are deprived of this blessing, they will be unable to see anything until this system is restored. And that can only happen by Allah ’s choosing.

This special blessing, created for human beings while they are still embryos, is a gift from Allah, Who is always needed and from Whom aid may be hoped for at all times:

Say: “It is He Who brought you into being and gave you hearing, sight, and hearts. What little thanks you show!’ (Surat al-Mulk, 23)

The Superior Detail in Taste Perception Cells

The tongue’s taste cells, which are replaced in a matter of days, are each equipped with their predecessor cell’s knowledge. Thus, the taste of something we ate ten days ago is still familiar to us. Our Almighty Lord creates every cell and the information within it with His infinite might.

We can remember the flavor of a food we enjoyed ten days ago. If we eat it again, we can perceive the same taste once again and experience the same enjoyment, because its taste is now familiar. However, the tongue’s taste cells are not the same as the ones that existed ten days ago. Every day our taste cells come into contact with acidic foods that are hotter or colder than the body’s temperature. Hot tea, an ice-cold fruit juice, thick coffee, or bitter grapefruit juice all damage these cells to some extent. But by His will, new cells mature in the taste buds to replace those that have completed their life’s work.

Even if people are unaware of them, these processes occur so quickly that the taste cells we use at dinner are not those we use at breakfast. And yet we do not imagine ourselves to be eating that food for the first time. We never confuse an apple’s flavor, because every new cell contains exactly the same knowledge as the old cell. In fact, all of our cells are constantly being renewed, and yet one’s nose never changes shape and one’s hair never changes color. New cells never install themselves in the wrong place, and thus everything always retains the same shape.

If the old taste cells were not renewed, we would be unable to taste anything. A delicious meal or a piece of wood would taste the same. We would forget what sweetness was and be unaware if a piece of food were poisonous or rotten, for only specially created taste cells can initiate this superior process and blessing. In fact, Almighty Allah, the Creator and Lord of all beings, has created these cells with a perfect memory and a sublime renewal system. This and thousands of other similar blessings are His gifts, for He is generous to His servants, forgives unrequitedly, and is all-compassionate:

Praise be to Allah, to Whom everything in the heavens and on Earth belongs. Praise be to Him in the Hereafter. He is the All-Wise, the All-Aware. (Surah Saba’, 1)

Water: One of His Greatest Blessings

Water has been specially created to keep the human body alive. It reaches every point in the body, carries nutrients to all of its 100 trillion cells, and supplies them with oxygen and energy. Its viscosity level has been specially determined so that it can do all of these things. Water is yet another example of His sublime art of detail.

Water makes up three-fourths of Earth and around 70% of the human body. It enters each cell and travels through every vein, carries food and gives oxygen and energy to all of our 100 trillion cells. Thus, it is an incomparable blessing for life.

If water were more fluid than it actually is, living things’ structures would be confronted by its destructive effect and soon collapse. In such a state, water could not support these delicate molecular structures, and so each cell’s delicate structure would collapse. If water were thicker than it actually is, the controlled actions of small organelles and such macromolecules as proteins and enzymes would cease and cell division would become impossible. All of a cell’s vital functions would freeze, and so the cells would begin to die one by one, making the organism’s death just a matter of time.

From the tiniest molecule to the whales in the oceans, everything on Earth needs water, and therefore water has been created with a specific level of viscosity specially designed to benefit all of them: Earth, living things, a living entity’s body, and even that particular body’s smallest molecule. Even with present-day technology, scientists cannot produce another fluid with the same properties and capable of reaching every cell.

Allah has made the glorious details that human beings lack the power to produce essential for all people and has bestowed them in abundance. Doing so reminds people who can think and reflect on His might, and dwelling on just one of these life-giving elements enables them to thank Him for His blessings and appreciate His greatness:

Allah sends down water from the sky and by it brings the dead ground back to life. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who hear. (Surat al-Nahl, 65)

The Human Brain’s Great Energy

The brain uses enough energy to power a dim lamp. Every memory is the result of the 1,000-500,000 connections made by 100 billion cells at a speed of 400 km per hour (248.5 mph).

The brain consists of approximately 80% water, 10% fat, 8% proteins, and small amounts of  carbohydrates, salt, and other minerals. Each one of its nerves functions by receiving electrochemical signals. Neural networks store memories by weakening or strengthening their many connections, and the result is memory. Encountering unfamiliar situations or looking at a portrait for the first time, for example, causes the cells to make new arrangements among themselves. The relevant nerves immediately strengthen their connections and attempt to define the situation. The data recorded enable the process to be carried out faster when the same situation is repeated, for what was new before will now appear familiar. The brain stores processes repeated throughout one’s life as a general image. Every recorded moment comes about by means of the 1,000 to 500,000 connections that the brain’s 100 billion nerves establish at a speed of 400 km per hour (248.5 mph).

With this superb capacity, the brain uses enough energy to run a dim lamp. Although it constitutes only one-fiftieth of the body’s weight, it consumes one-fifth of the body’s entire oxygen and glucose supplies. So important is the brain that it receives the first blood emerging from the heart; if only a small amount of blood is left, it still seeks to keep the brain alive. The heart, blood vessels, and all other organs are literally aware of this fact.

The slightest brain damage can leave a person handicapped or even dead. In fact, this organ is so delicate that the failure of electrical signals to reach a single cell can cause the loss of one of the senses that enable us to perceive the outside world. No single point in it can come into being by chance, and its perfect organization and equipment cannot be altered in a random manner.

This perfection, a very great blessing, reflects the creative artistry of Allah, Who treats His servants well, the Beneficent Who creates to perfection, The Maker and He Who Reveals His Greatness in All:

 It is He Who shows you His Signs and sends down provision to you out of heaven. But none pay heed save those who repent. (Surah Ghafir, 13)

The Atom’s Astonishing Detail

Each atom consists of protons and neutrons bonded together in the nucleus, around which electrons revolve rapidly. Since the neutron carries no electrical charge and the proton has a positive charge, the nucleus is positively charged. The electron, on the other hand, has a negative charge proportional to the proton’s positive charge. If the proton and the electron’s electrical charges were unequal, the proton’s greater electricity would cause all atoms to be positively charged and thus repel each other. As a result, everything on Earth, including human beings, the seas and mountains, and all the planets in the Solar System and all the heavenly bodies in the universe would suddenly break apart into countless minute particles and cease to exist.

Throughout their lives, human beings are unaware of the subatomic particles that attract each other, the electrons spinning rapidly around the nucleus, and their delicate internal balances and forces. Even its minutest components contains such breathtaking details that clearly only Allah, the Lord of absolute will and a force far greater than all known worldly forces, could have brought them into existence.

Despite living in such an exceedingly delicate and sensitive system, human beings never feel any difficulty or concern, because the system’s creation is flawless. And yet the majority of people are unaware of these blessings. If one of them were removed, they would see how helpless they actually are and would become aware of the great compassion that had formerly surrounded them. The important thing in this worldly life, which is no more than a test, is for people to be grateful as they enjoy His blessings and mercy and turn toward Him. One reason for our existence is to see who will appreciate these bestowed blessings and who will be heedless and ungrateful. Sincere believers need to know that only Almighty Allah can bestow these blessings; thus, they should be constantly grateful to Him for them.

Do the unbelievers not see that the heavens and Earth were sewn together and then We unstitched them, and that We made from water every living thing? So will they not believe? (Surat al-Anbiya’, 30)

A Mosquito’s Impressive Heat Receptors

Giant dialysis machines can carry out the processes that are constantly being performed in the kidneys, just 10 cm (3.937 in) in size, only with great difficulty.

A mosquito can detect the presence of any living thing due to its highly sensitive heat receptors that perceive the heat given off by a living entity in different colors, according to the heat the entity emits. Since this perception does not depend upon light, a mosquito easily finds blood vessels even if the entity is in a dark room. In fact, its heat detectors are so sensitive that they can determine temperature differences of just 0.05 degrees Celsius.1

Human beings have no such ability; Allah has bestowed it on this tiny creature—it is no larger than 1 cm (0.4 in)—so that it can find food and protect itself. Only Allah can create such a small and flawless heat-dependent mechanism in so tiny a creature and then bring it to life. Clearly, no one can claim that such a remarkable creature could have come into existence spontaneously as the result of chance.

Any thoughtful person knows that a random phenomenon will only damage and destroy a perfect complex system; it cannot bring any system into being. Only Almighty Allah, Lord of the worlds, Who creates the mosquito’s sublime heat perception system, shapes and forms all things, and controls everything at all moments can do this:

What is in the heavens and in the ground belongs to Allah. We have instructed those given the Book before you, and you yourselves, to fear [and respect] Allah. But if you do not believe, what is in the heavens and in the ground [stills] belongs to Allah. Allah is Rich Beyond Need, Praiseworthy. (Surat al-Nisa’, 131)

The Nutcracker’s Superior Memory

The nutcracker has the most powerful avian memory so far identified. Native to the large Rocky Mountains in North America and the Grand Canyon, it lives on pine nuts that are edible for only a few weeks in September. Therefore, it stores them for later consumption. The distance between the pine trees and the storage site may sometimes be as much as 20 km (12.4 miles). It buries the nuts by placing them in the hard soil in a single movement; sometimes it leaves a stone on top as a marker. Over the course of three hectic weeks, the nutcracker collects nuts constantly. As it flies, it remembers the land’s contours, the trees it has visited, and the rock faces, all of which it adds to its mental map.

The nutcracker has to remember where it has buried 100,000 nuts along a portion of the Grand Canyon that measures hundreds of kilometers throughout this short but productive period. This is how it survives for the rest of the year. During winter, it has to remember the markers like a photograph, because the snow changes the landscape and renders the markers invisible. Nevertheless, it manages to locate 90% of the buried 100,000 pine nuts.1

It is impossible for a bird to know that the food it needs will not be available after a certain period of time and that it has to collect and hide enough to survive. How did it learn how much food to collect at which time, where to store it, and how to find all of the 100,000 pine nuts again under the snow? Yet it does all of these things flawlessly, for like all other living entities, it acts according to Allah’s inspiration. Only the supervision and assistance of its Creator and the One Who inspires it to do certain things enables it to find its stored food, which has become invisible, without difficulty.

This amazing creation of Allah, Who observes all created entities and showers unlimited, boundless, and unknowable mercy upon them at all times, is plain for all to see. The details exhibited in such a tiny bird once again reveals His Might and greatness in the finest manner possible.

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)

The Skin: An Amazing Detail and Blessing

The skin is a flawless casing that gives us a regular appearance; conceals the extraordinary activity going on inside our bodies; and makes touch, one of our most important senses, possible. Countless receptor nerves, circulatory channels, ventilation systems, heat and moisture detectors, and other manifestations of His artistry operate within it. The skin itself is both strong and elastic, two characteristics that are practically mutually exclusive.

Skin covers an area of 2m2 (21.5 ft2) and weights 3 kgs (6.6 lbs). Its cells live for about one week, after which they die and are replaced. During a person’s life, 20 kgs (44 lbs) of skin cells are manufactured. Every square centimeter of skin contains sense cells that permit touch perceptions and assume various tasks, depending on their location. For example, when your hand comes into contact with boiling water, the receptors cause you to feel a sensation of heat and then one of pain. Some 30,000 receptors perceive heat; 3.5 million feel pain.

This perfect casing and special organ, which is unaffected by external factors and has enormous elasticity, can transmit messages from every square millimeter to the nerves and thence to the brain. In fact, it consists of a network of nerves and blood vessels that is constantly being renewed. Allah bestowed this miracle upon each person and endowed even its smallest part with sensation. So perfect is this miracle that modern technology cannot produce a similar structure.

This flawless casing protects us, enables us to touch other things, and gives us a pleasing appearance. A perfect blessing and flawless detail, Allah, in His boundless knowledge, created it and then bestowed it upon us:

It is Allah Who made Earth a stable home for you and the sky a dome, and formed you, giving you the best of forms, and provided you with good and wholesome things. That is Allah, your Lord. Blessed be Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. (Surah Ghafir, 64)

Protein: The Cell’s Most Basic Detail

Proteins, the building blocks of all cells, emerge as the result of sequences of amino acids. Many basic conditions need to be met for a protein to form, among them the following: The amino acids have to be attached by a peptide bond, be left-handed, and be combined in a special sequence. These three conditions cannot form as the result of chance. Scientists who realized this fact performed calculations and determined that the odds were 1 in 10¹⁹⁰ against such a series of events happening by chance. Even if a period of time as long as the age of our planet were allowed for this to take place, it would still be impossible for this protein to form by chance. Bearing in mind that, mathematically speaking, a probability of 1 in 10⁵⁰ is regarded as zero, the fact of the matter emerges very clearly, because the number 10¹⁹⁰ represents the number 10⁵⁰x10⁵⁰x10⁵⁰x10⁴⁰=10¹⁹⁰.

Proteins, the basis of your body and of all life, represent both the cells’ building material and highly complex machinery. Although a single protein cannot come into being by chance or spontaneously, this perfect structure still represents the basis of the cell. Thus, many proteins combine together and are constantly being reproduced—an important proof that fundamentally invalidates the theory of evolution.

By introducing this perfect raw material, Allah shows the sublime nature of His creation. By reflecting for just a few seconds on the existence of the countless proteins that comprise our body, we can see that He creates miracles at every moment. Thus, we should always be grateful to Him:

 (It is) so that He may know that they have indeed transmitted the Messages of their Lord. He (Allah) encompasses what is in their hands and has counted the exact number of everything. (Surat al-Jinn, 28)