RAMADAN 2005 The 17th Day

Ayat of the Day

THE FOOD CYCLE

Allah splits the seed and kernel. He brings forth the living from the dead, and produces the dead out of the living. That is Allah, so how are you misguided? (Surat al-An‘am: 95)

In the above verse, our attention is drawn to a food cycle of which people at the time of the Qur'an's revelation could have known nothing.

When a living thing dies, micro-organisms quickly cause it to decompose. The dead body is thus divided up into organic molecules that mix with the soil and form the basic source of food for plants, animals, and, ultimately, humanity. Were it not for this nutritional cycle, life would not be possible.

Bacteria are responsible for meeting all living things' mineral and food needs. Plants and some animals, which remain almost dead (hibernation) throughout the winter, revive in the summer and meet all of their mineral and food requirements through the activities of bacteria during the winter. Throughout the winter, bacteria separate organic wastes (i.e., dead plants and animals) and turn them into minerals. Thus, when living things reawaken in spring, they find food ready and waiting for them. Thanks to bacteria, a "spring cleaning" has been carried out in their environment and the necessary amount of food has been prepared for nature as it returns to life in the spring.

As we have seen, dead creatures play a vital role in the emergence of new ones. This transition, indicated in the Qur'an as "He brings forth the living from the dead, and produces the dead out of the living," is carried out in the most perfect manner. This is one of the proofs that the Qur'an is the word of Allah.

The Biological Clock in Plants

A great many plants possess a biological clock that possesses detailed information about their own structures and other living things that assist in fertilizing them, and that literally resembles a computer centre. The existence of this biological clock points to one single truth; the truth of creation...

The ability to measure time is an ability that one does not usually expect to see in other living things other than man. It may be thought that this is limited to man, but both plants and animals possess a time-measuring mechanism, or "biological clock."

In the 1920s, when two scientists in Germany , Erwin Buenning and Kurt Stem, were studying the movement of bean plant leaves, they saw that the plants were moving their leaves towards the sun throughout the day, and that at night they were gathering their leaves vertically upwards and assuming a sleeping position.

Some 200 years before these two scientists published their findings, the French astronomer Jacques d'Ortuous de Marian had also observed that plants possessed such a regular sleep rhythm. Experiments in a dark environment where temperature and moisture were controlled showed that this situation did not change, and that plants possessed systems inside themselves which measure time.

Under natural conditions, plants select certain times for certain activities. They do this in line with certain changes in the sunlight. Because their internal clocks are tuned to sunlight, they complete their rhythmic activities in 24 hours. In other cases, there are some rhythms which are much longer than 24 hours.

No matter how long the rhythmic motions last, there is one point that does not change. These motions happen to ensure the life of the plant and the survival of the generations, and always take place at the most appropriate time. And in order for them to be successful, several complicated processes have to be completed in a flawless manner.

For example, in most plants flowers open at a particular time of year, i.e. at the best possible time. Plants' clocks, which regulate this time, also calculate the duration of sunlight falling on the leaves. Every plant's biological clock calculates this period in accordance with the plant's particular features. No matter what the calculation, the flowers open at the most appropriate time. As a result of research into the regulation of time in the soy bean, it was seen that, at whatever time these plants are sown, they open their flowers at the same time of year.

It causes the time the poppy flower disperses its pollen to coincide with the days and hours when pollinators are most prevalent. And these days and hours vary from plant to plant. But at the end of the day, with this time regulation, every plant disperses its pollen in a manner guaranteed to give the best results. Poppy flowers disperse their pollen in July and August between 05:30 and 10:00 in the morning. That is the time is that bees and other insects emerge to look for food. At this point the flower has to include in its calculation not just its own characteristics, but also those of other living things, down to the finest detail. The plant must have accurate knowledge of the time when the creatures which will fertilize it emerge, the length of the journey they will undertake, and the times they feed. In such a situation the following question comes to mind: Where in the plant is this clock, which possesses all this "information," which does all the necessary calculations, analyses the features of other creatures, and works in a way reminiscent of a computer centre? Where the perfect time measuring system is in plants is still a mystery to the scientists.

This clearly indicates a superior intelligence and power which establishes and controls the timing of all plants' different activities.

The subject of the biological clock in plants is just one of the countless miracles of creation. The theory of evolution, however, which propounds the nonsense that life came into being by chance, is a theory that seeks to find support for its claims by producing various scenarios. This is a fact sometimes admitted even by evolutionists themselves. Dr. Robert Milikan, a Nobel Prize winner and evolutionist, describes the situation in which evolutionists find themselves in these terms:

"The pathetic thing is that we have scientists who are trying to prove evolution, which no scientist can ever prove." (http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/sbs777/vital/evolutio.html )

With His superior might and omniscience Allah shows us proofs of creation everywhere, and wills us to draw conclusions and reflect by seeing these. As stated in the Qur'an, only people capable to using their reason can draw conclusions and reflect, and thus find a path to our Lord:

It is He Who sends down water from the sky. From it you drink and from it come the shrubs among which you graze your herds. And by it He makes crops grow for you and olives and dates and grapes and fruit of every kind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Surat an-Nahl: 10-11)