Introduction: A Short Voyage Through The Human Body

This book describes how the human body’s various systems function, and gives examples of their components. In contrast to many other books about human anatomy, however, we also regularly emphasize a number of points. We examine information in considerable detail, draw attention to the fine characteristic in every square millimeter of the human body, and particularly emphasize the cells, tissues, molecules and glands that perform such miraculous processes within that body’s depths.

From time to time, we also provide technical details, to ensure a better understanding of the complex structure within your body, and also to give you a new perspective on events occurring inside your body and to encourage you to consider them more deeply.

In order to achieve this, as you read this book, imagine yourself on a voyage throughout your own body—a voyage on which unbelievable surprises await you. You will discover that there is a generator in your heart, and when that generator cuts out, a spare one steps in to take over the work. You’ll witness how cells in your small intestine are able to recognize and trap iron atoms out of the many hundreds of different substances they encounter. You will see how, after a long journey, a molecule of hormone, produced in an endocrine gland located in your head, reaches its far distant objective—your kidney, for example—and how it instructs the cells there what to do.

During the course of this journey you will witness miraculous events that have been taking place throughout what you refer to as “My body” ever since the day you were born, starting right beneath the surface of your skin.

Viewed from that point of view, your body is a whole city, a whole other world, in fact. Inside it are modes of transport, buildings, factories, infrastructure systems, equipment more highly advanced than even the most sophisticated technology in the outside world, specialized elements (such as cells, hormones, glands) that seem to exhibit unexpected awareness, fully equipped defensive troops, and many other marvels.

Moreover, this miniaturized environment is not restricted to your own body alone. Everyone you see around you—your parents, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues, people walking in the street, the actors you watch on television, and all the billions currently living on this planet—possesses this same miraculous world within the skin. Similarly, people who lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago—indeed all the humans who have ever lived—have possessed this same inner perfection. Just like those alive today, people in the past had the same flawless systems in their bodies: trillions of conscious-seeming cells, secretory glands with decision-making abilities, and organs equipped with the most sophisticated biotechnology.

Considering and evaluating the events taking place within this miniature environment is of great importance, because anyone who does so has taken the first step towards freedom from a great illusion. Those who realize the perfection of the systems inside their own bodies—in the heart, for example—and who have grasped the creation within that system, can no longer be taken in by evolutionary fables that claim that the heart acquired all these features by chance. You will know that cells formed by the coming together of unconscious molecules could never do these things by themselves, and will seek to question of Whose intellect it actually is that these cells exhibit.

Someone who realizes that the stomach, a mere enclosure of muscle and tissue, possesses a special system that prevents it digesting itself while it secretes the acid strong enough to dissolve meat . . . those who know that when they cut their finger, at least 20 different enzymes go into action in a very special sequence in order for their blood to clot, with never any confusion or deficiency in the various processes while this is carried out . . . will find, by thinking deeply about the details of matter, that none of these systems could have developed in stages, as evolutionists would have us all believe.

Those who understand these details will realize that the tiny worlds of their bodies, has a Creator, and will regard the information they read here as a guide to becoming acquainted with that Creator. Everyone who sees the order in the systems within the human body, its superior creation at every point, will also clearly see that an Entity possessed of a superior power and a superior intellect must have created that body. In the Qur’an it is revealed that:

As you will clearly see from the examples given throughout this book, it is Almighty Allah Who created the 100 trillion or so cells, the glands, many organs and tissues in your human body. Allah creates human beings as a whole, together with all their physical components, and reveals evidence of this to allow them to come to know Him. As our Lord has revealed in the Qur’an:

That being so, those who are aware of all this must also realize the many blessings imparted by Allah. Such people will arrange their lives in such a way as to please only Him, know that their own bodies, and every new day bestowed on them when they rise in the morning are blessings from Allah, and will give due thanks to Him.

Intelligent Design—In Other Words, Creation

In order to create, Allah has no need to design.

It’s important to properly understand the word “design.” That Allah has created a flawless design does not mean that He first made a plan, and then followed it. Allah needs no “designs” in order to create. Allah, the Lord of the Earth and the heavens, 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 verses of the Qur’an:

Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you everything in the heavens and Earth and has showered His blessingsupon you, both outwardly and inwardly? (Surah Luqman:20)