Human body is miraculous
Allah (may He be Exalted) says in Surat Al Infitar: "O man! What has made you careless about your Lord, the Most Generous? * Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion. * In whatever form He willed, He put you together." [Surat Al Infitar: 6 - 8].
The author of "In the shade of the Qur'an" book (may Allah be merciful with him) spoke about this Ayah saying: The address appeals to man's most noble quality, his humanity, which distinguishes him from all creatures and assigns to him the highest position among them.
This quality represents Allah's gracious blessing to man and His abundant generosity to him. This appeal is immediately followed by a gentle remonstrance: "What has lured you away from your gracious Lord?" What makes you neglect your duties to your Lord and behave impudently towards Him when He has given you your humanity which raises you above all His creation and provides you with the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. A few details of Allah's generosity are then added: "O man, what has lured you away from your gracious Lord, Who created and molded you and gave you an upright shape." It is an address which appeals straight to man's heart.
He listens to the remonstrance of Allah when He reminds him of His grace while he continues with his erring ways and impudent behavior towards Him.
Indeed, man should reflect deeply over his creation, his physically and physiologically perfect constitution. Reflection should prompt him to show his genuine gratitude, deep respect and real love to Allah, his gracious Lord, Who has blessed him with such constitution, perfect, upright and handsome.
The miraculous aspects in man's constitution are far greater than what he sees all around him and what he can imagine. Perfection and the right balance are easily evident in man's physical, mental and spiritual constitution. Full volumes have been written on the perfection of creation as evidenced by man. It is perhaps useful to include here one or two quotations from such works.
There are some quotes from the third and the fourth chapter of "Would you then reflect" book by Sheikh `Abdul-`Aziz ibn Nasir Al Jalil, which I think enough to deliver the correct message.
The author of "In the shade of the Qur'an" book said:
The human body is composed of a number of specialized systems: the skeleton, the muscular system, the skin, the digestive system, the blood circulation system, the respiratory system, the procreative system, the lymphatic system, the nervous system, the urinal system and the senses of tasting, smelling, hearing and seeing. Everyone of these systems is miraculous and far more wonderful than any scientific achievement which makes man possessed with wonder. Yet man tends to overlook the wonders of his own constitution!
He mentioned some of Allah's Favors in the creation and structure of man: Look at the sperm which is a drop of weak stinky water, if an hour passed, it will be spilled. So, how Allah, the lord of lords and the All Knowing the All Hearing, got it out from between the backbone and the ribs, submitting to His Power and obedient to His Will! How did Allah gather male and female and connected them with love and intimacy! How did Allah destined both sperms to meet and made for them an established place that is not spoiled by air or frozen by cold! Then He turned that white sperm into red by adding blood to it, then made it a piece of meat, then added bones to it.
Behold! How He divided these similar parts into nerves, bones, and veins: some of them are hard and some of them are soft! Then how He connected these bones and veins together and how did He clothe them with flesh! How did He fashion man in the best manner and made for him hearing, sight, mouth, nose, and all outlets. Then He stretched the hands and the legs, divided the tip of fingers, then placed the inner organs, such as: the heart, the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the lung, the womb, the bladder, and intestines, and for each is a benefit and a function.
Behold! The great wisdom in the construction of bones and how did the Lord destined them in different shapes! Some of them are small, big, tall, short, curved, round, hollow, and so on.
When a person needs to move his entire body or some of his organs, Allah facilitated his movements by creating man's bones and connected them with joints and each bone is created to do its function. So, when a person wants to move a bone, he moves easily. Had not been for the joints, a person would not have moved.
It was reported in "In the shade of the Qur'an" book:
A contributor to the British Scientific Journal writes: Man's hand is one of the most remarkable wonders of nature. It is extremely difficult, indeed impossible, to invent a device which can match the human hand for simplicity, efficiency, ability and instant adaptability. When you read a book you take it in your hand, then you hold it in the position most suitable for your reading. The same hand will automatically correct the position of your book whenever a correction of position is necessary. When you turn a page you place your finger underneath the paper and apply the amount of pressure needed for turning the page. When the page is turned no more pressure is applied. You also use your hand to hold a pen and to write. With your hand you use all the tools you need such as a spoon, a knife or a pen. You use it to open or close the window and to carry anything you wish to carry ... Man's hand has 27 pieces of bone in addition to 19 groups of muscles. [Excerpted from "Allah and Modern Science" book by `Abdur-Razzaq Nawfal].
Contemplate in the creation of the head and its bones. It was said that it contains 55 bones of different shapes, amounts, and benefits, and how Allah (Glory be to Him) placed it on the top of the body. He placed therein the five senses: Hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch. He created the eyes of seven layers and for each layer there is a certain description, amount, and benefit. If one of these layers is lost, the eye will be damaged. Then He placed therein the lens which can see what is between the east and the west and what is between the earth and sky, may the best of creators be blessed!
See how Allah beautified the shape of the eyes and their amount! Then beautified them with eyelids and eyelashes which protect the eyes from heat and cold then placed therein that bright light which penetrates the layer that is between the sky and earth.
Moreover, He made for a person hearing and created the ear in the best shape, then the wisdom of the Great Creator that He made the fluid of the ear bitter, so nothing can penetrate into the eardrum.
A part of the human ear is composed of a series of some four thousand circles but complex arches graduated with exquisite regularity in size and shape. These may be said to resemble a musical instrument, and they seem adjusted to catch, and transmit in some manner to the brain, every cadence of sound or noise, from the thunderclap to the whisper of the pines and the exquisite blending of the tones and harmonies of every instrument in the orchestra. If in forming the ear the cells were impelled to evolve strict efficiency only that man might survive, why did they not extend the range and develop a super acuteness? Perhaps the power behind these cells' activities anticipated man's coming need of intellectual enjoyment, or did they by accident build better than they knew? [Excerpted from the book of science calls to faith].
Allah made the eye drops salty to protect it and made the saliva sweet so that a person would taste food.
Moreover, Allah created the nose in a beautiful shape, and placed therein the nostrils which have a barrier in between. He placed therein smelling to differentiate between good and bad odors and to breathe thereby.
Allah created for a person the tools of tasting, speech, and cutting machines (teeth). He also placed therein the tongue which expresses the conditions of the body, so it is the messenger of the body.
The wisdom of Allah (Glory be to Him) entails that the messenger of the body is covered not as ears, eyes, and nose because these organs do external functions, but when the function of the tongue expresses the inner conditions, it was covered by the mouth.
Then Allah (Glory be to Him) decorated the mouth by teeth by which a person eats and made them like cutting machines: Sharpened their teeth, whitened them, and arranged their rows in harmonious order like pearls. There is another function of the tongue which is the exits of letters and were covered by lips to be able to absorb, drink, and speak.
Allah (Glory be to Him) created larynxes in different shapes, so voices to be different and two voices cannot be the same, therefore it was correct to accept the testimony of a blind because he differentiates voices as an ordinary person differentiates figures by sight.
Moreover, Allah (Glory be to Him) decorated the head by hair and made it a covering because a person needs it. Furthermore, He decorated the face by different types of hairs: The eyebrows which He made as protection to the eye. He made them curved, beautified their shape, and decorated the eyelids with lashes. He decorated the face with the beard and made it perfection and part of man's dignity, and decorated the lips with moustache and soul patch.
See how did He created the neck and made it of seven hollow round beads then He composed each bead with the other precisely until they became one bead. Then He composed the neck on the back and the chest, then divided the back into 24 beads one over the other. Then He connected the ribs with one another to stop bones from being loose. So, He connected the bones of the back with the chest bones, shoulder bones with arm bones, arm bones with hands, and hands with fingers.
See how He clothed the wide bones such as the back bones and head with flesh, fine bones are clothed with suitable flesh such as fingers and medium bones such as the arm bones which are divided into 360 bones: 248 in joints and the rest are added to joints. If one more bone is added, it will harm man and if one bone is broken or missed, man needs repair.
Allah (Glory be to Him) connected these organs together with ribbons until they reached 529 of different size and shape; 24 of them are for opening and closing the eyes and if one ribbon is damaged, the function of the eye will not work. This is the creation of Allah, who is All-Wise, All-Knowing. Woe to those who deny the power of Allah.
Of the wonders of His Creation is that He created three places for storage and placed therein secrets, which are: memory, thought, and mind.
There are more wonders inside human body which are: the heart, the liver, the spleen, the lung, the intestines, and the bladder.
As for the heart, it controls all these functions because it is the most important of all. It is the source of spirit, energy, knowledge, forbearance, courage, generosity, patience, bearing, love, will, satisfaction, anger, and all qualities of perfection.
The eye is the organ which reflects images to the heart as tongue is the organ which expresses the conditions of the body.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart." [Reported by Al Bukhari: 52 and Muslim 1599].
Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The heart is the king of organs and organs are the troops, so if the king is good, the organs will be good. However, if the king is bad, the organs will be bad." [Muftah Dar As-Sa`adah 1\193-199 of Ibn Al Qayyim].
If we think of digestion as a process in a chemical laboratory and of the food that we eat as raw materials, we immediately discover that it is a wonderful process which will digest anything edible except the stomach itself.
First into this laboratory we put a variety of food as a raw material without the slightest regard for the laboratory or how the chemistry of digestion will handle it. We eat steak, cabbage, corn and fried fish, wash it down with any quantity of water, and top it off with alcohol, bread, and beans. We may add sulfur and molasses as spring medicine. Out of this mixture the stomach selects those things which are useful by breaking down into its chemical molecules every item of food, discarding the waste, and reconstructs the residue into new proteins, which become the food of the various cells. The digestive tract selects calcium, sulfur, iodine, iron and any other substances which are necessary, takes care that the essential molecules are not lost, that the hormones can be produced and that all of the valid necessities of life are on hand in regulated quantities, ready to meet every necessity. It stores fat and other reserves to meet such an emergency as starvation, and does all this in spite of human thought or reason. We pour this infinite variety of substances into this chemical laboratory with almost total disregard of what we take in, depending on what we consider the automatic process to keep us alive. When these foods have been broken down and are again prepared, they are delivered constantly to each of our billions of cells, a greater number than all the human beings on earth. The delivery to each individual cell must be constant, and only those substances which the particular cell needs to transform them into bones, nails, flesh, hair, eyes, and teeth are taken up by the proper cell. Here is a chemical laboratory producing more substances than any laboratory which human ingenuity has devised. Here is a delivery system greater than any method of transportation or distribution the world has ever known, all being conducted in perfect order. [Allah and modern science].
Conclusion:
Thus, we saw how does the Qur'an call a person to think and reflect in Allah's Creation because it is the most powerful evidence to the power of Allah. The nearest thing to man is himself which contains wonders, so a person should ponder over himself. If a person does so, he shall be deterred by these wonders.
Allah (may He be Exalted) says: "Be cursed (the disbelieving) man! How ungrateful he is! * From what thing did He create him? * From Nutfah (male and female semen drops) He created him and then set him in due proportion. * Then He makes the Path easy for him." [Surat `Abas: 17 - 20]. Perhaps we have known the wisdom from repeating the words of "sperm, congealed blood, piece of meat, and dust" to our hearings and minds.
The number of blessings, which we have known, in compare to the number of Allah's blessings is less than a drop of water in a sea. Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "And if you would count the favors of Allâh, never could you be able to count them. Truly! Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." [Surat An-Nahl: 18].
Resources:
* "Afla Tatafakarun" of Sheikh `Abdul-`Aziz Ibn Nasr Al Jalil, chapter three: "Pondering over Allah's Creation in regard of selves."
* Ibids, chapter four: "Pondering over Allah's visible and invisible blessings."
* Muftah Dar As-Sa`adah of Ibn Al Qayyim.
* Allah and modern science of `Abdur-Razzaq Nawfal.