Allah's Art of Detail 06-10

The Body's Flawless Stimuli Signals

Eventually, the skin's receptors stop sending signals to the brain about the material touching the skin. Thus, we do not constantly feel the presence of items that are in constant contact with our skin. This is a great blessing created by Allah.

People's skin is in constant contact with many things for varying lengths of time (e.g., clothing, watches, and furniture), and yet they do not constantly perceive their presence. There is a very important reason for this: after a certain length of time, the skin's receptors grow used to whatever is touching the skin and stop sending the relevant signals to the brain. This marvelous system, comprised of countless flawless details, enables people to live without constant discomfort.

Were it not for this familiarization system, even such an ordinary matter as wearing clothes would become a major concern. The receptors' constant perception would turn wearing clothes into a torment, and we would find it hard to perceive the signals from other things that we touched. People might concentrate forever on how much their socks were squeezing their ankles or on how their wristwatches were sliding up and down their arms. In such a situation, one could neither sleep nor rest properly. In short, life would become very unpleasant.

Just as the sense of touch is a blessing, our gradually decreasing awareness of it is also a blessing. A single detail makes human life easier and provides a significant degree of comfort. Evolutionists' imaginary mechanisms have no consciousness that can direct the body to feel or when to get used to that feeling. Only the Sufficient, Almighty Allah, Who bestows this blessing and meets the needs of everything that exists, can do so:

Any blessing you have is from Allah. Then when harm touches you, it is to Him you cry for help. (Surat al-Nahl, 53)

The Amazing Hatchet Fish

With its large, upward-facing eyes, the hatchet fish is always aware of dangers above it. But it also needs to be prepared for threats from beneath. The phosphorus cells in its stomach area, which produce light, imitate the color of the light coming from above. As a result, it is undetectable to the predators below it.

The hatchet fish, a great marvel of creation, lives at depths of around 1,000 m (3,280 ft). Its large eyes, which face upwards, enable it to see in the dark and hunt their prey, which passes overhead. However, these creatures also have to be invisible to threats that might arise from above. Their superior bodily structure, which is flat and silver colored, protects them from this danger by allowing them to camouflage themselves easily in the dark.

But how are they protected against potential threats coming from below, for those fish living at even greater depths are, thanks to their own large eyes, just as predatory. This problem is solved by a superb method of deception, thanks to special cells located in its stomach: photophores. These extraordinary cells, which produce a biological light by combining two chemical substances to initiate the necessary reaction, imitate the changing color of the light filtering down from above and emit light of exactly the same color. As a result, predators below cannot see the hatchet fish's shadow as it passes over them.

You may never have heard of this fish or what it looks like or how it lives. So how does knowledge of its magnificent features benefit you? Had Allah so willed, He could have created this fish without all of its attributes or willed to not create any of the countless attributes necessary for its survival.

The details that His creatures display for human beings may transform them from discontented and restless individuals chasing after worldly interests into happy and contented people with faith and hope in the Hereafter. It is enough to see His blessings in everything and to consider His absolute existence for this to happen. Every beauty and detail belong to Allah, Who constantly bestows them upon us:

And in your creation and all the creatures He has spread about, there are Signs for people with certainty. (Surat al-Jathiyyah, 4)

The Water That Always Returns to Us

Hydrogen and oxygen atoms have to collide in order to form water, one of our most vital needs. Earth lacks the levels of heat and energy to permit this collision to take place. Water came into being during our planet's formation, and that same water is constantly returning to us in a purified form.

Allah gives people knowledge and possibilities in a wide range of fields. For example, modern-day technology allows us to observe the formation of many things in a laboratory environment. However, some fundamental events can neither be brought about nor even observed in such an environment. One of these great blessings is water, which covers much of Earth and meets our most basic needs. During the Earth's formation, water was created, and then its production period ended.

In order for hydrogen and oxygen molecules to create water, they first have to collide so that their bonds will weaken and enable the atoms that make up these molecules to combine into a new molecule: H2O (water). Such a collision can only occur at a very high temperature and energy level. As Earth does not possess a sufficiently high temperature to permit water's formation, no new water can be formed. As stated above, all water that exists was created during our planet's formation. In other words, its amount never changes. The water we drink and use is always exactly the same water, because it evaporates and then returns as rain. Allah has revealed this in His verses:

Have you thought about the water that you drink? Is it you who sent it down from the clouds, or are We the Sender? (Surat al-Waqi'ah, 68-69)

If the water that Allah created in a ready state on Earth were to dry up and disappear, nothing could bring it back. If Allah willed to suspend the water cycle of evaporation, it would never rain again: All blessings come from Allah. It is Almighty Allah Who constantly places blessings at human beings' disposal and Who creates them out of nothing.

We sent down a measured amount of water from heaven and lodged it firmly in the ground, and We are well able to remove it. (Surat al-Mu'minun, 18)

The Sublime System of Photosynthesis

Pick up a leaf and look at it closely. Although it appears quite ordinary, what you cannot see are the wide-ranging and magnificent chemical processes that enable it to carry out photosynthesis. Its countless factories, which are invisible to the naked eye, accomplish in seconds a process that is so sublime that scientists equipped with the most modern laboratory facilities cannot replicate it. This chemical process, which is performed very quietly by a usually unnoticed part of creation, is one of the main reasons why humanity is still present on this planet.

Every square millimeter of each leaf contains around 500,000 chlorophylls, the magnificent molecules that are necessary for photosynthesis. Were we able to examine this molecule, a great many more details would become apparent. For example, the entire photosynthesis process that takes place inside this particular molecule occurs within one ten-millionth of a second. In other words, the complex process initiated by the light reaching a leaf's water and then activating the relevant subatomic particles and changing their orbits is repeated 10 million times a second. In addition, this process takes place separately in each chlorophyll molecule.

Each leaf makes photosynthesis as the result of impressive and wide-ranging processes. Allah has equipped every square millimeter of a leaf with 500,000 chlorophyll molecules. By Allah's leave, this special process, which has still not been capable of being performed in the laboratory, is carried out in a flawless manner in every millimeter of the leaf.

If Allah willed chlorophyll molecules to cease their activities or the wavelength of the light reaching the leaf to change, no means of locating another source of oxygen would exist. If photosynthesis stopped, there would be no other way to convert into oxygen the carbon dioxide that human beings and animals exhale. It would be illogical to expect a chlorophyll molecule, which is essential for continued life, to come into being and set about cleaning the air and giving rise to nutrients all by itself.

The fact that a plant can consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen is a great miracle. This extraordinary system is a great blessing and astonishing work of Allah, the Lord of the Worlds:

Good land yields up its plants by its Lord's permission, but that which is bad only yields up scantily. In this way, We vary the Signs for people who are thankful. (Surat al-A'raf, 58)

The Honeybees' Superior Architectural Abilities

When it comes to making contiguous hexagons with an exact angle of 109 degrees and 28 minutes, one would need compasses and set squares to produce the various angular measurements and regularity necessary for devising the angles that determine these shapes. In the absence of such tools, there is both a considerable likelihood of error as well as the need to make various adjustments and redraw some of the hexagons. All of this would probably take a considerable amount of time. While this is a difficult matter for human beings, who possess reason and consciousness the same task is carried out by honeybees, who possess no reason or consciousness, in a perfect and continuous manner without any compasses or set squares. All honeybees build their combs using this flawless angle. Although there are hundreds of bees around the hive, there is no deviation from the angles of 109 degrees and 28 minutes and 70 degrees and 32 minutes when building their honeycombs. The combs are built by bringing in their edges by 13 degrees, which prevents the honey from pouring out.

Every comb is prepared by many honeybees working together, and is constructed from the floor upwards. The square floor (1) comes first and is followed by two touching walls (2). A second square is added to the base (3), thereby forming two more combs (4). The third square section (5) and two more walls complete the hexagon (6). These combs are suspended vertically, and the combs on either side are separated by a wall down the middle. The workers knead and soften more wax and install this in various thicknesses, not exceeding 0.02 mm (0.00078 in), in the walls. Such perfection manifests our Lord's art of detail.

If you stand close to a honeycomb, all you will see is honeybees flying around it. Yet every one of them is also an expert mathematician that knows where to stick the wax it is carrying and at what angle. How is this possible? Given that they possess no mathematical knowledge, did they learn to build these perfect combs by chance? Could each one of them, over the course of millions of years, have been born with this ability by chance, an ability that human beings never managed to acquire by chance? It is certainly impossible for a bee to possess an ability that human beings do not as the result of chance. It is Almighty Allah, the infinitely powerful, Who creates these creatures together with their superior abilities and Who inspires His own knowledge within them.

Your Lord revealed to the honeybees: "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 humanity. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Surat al-Nahl, 68-69)