Scientific facts in the Glorious Quran
THE MIRACLE OF CREATION
Two main challenges are posed by The Holy Quran
to all mankind. The first is to penetrate this universe, which is virtually
impossible both from the practical and scientific points of view. And the
second is the challenge of creation of even the smallest microscopic
unicellular creatures.
The Holy Ayat that expresses this challenge says:
"Those whom you invoke besides Allah could never create a single fly, though they combined to do this. And if a fly carried away anything from them, they could never retrieve it. Powerless is the invoker and the invoked" (AI-Hajj;73).
This Holy Ayat talks about the smallest visible creatures, that
neither man nor any of Allah's creatures could create. In addition, The Holy
Quran revealed in this Ayat a scientific fact that was not known at that time.
It is the fact that flies take something from the humans they land on, and that
they cannot retrieve no matter how hard they try. Moreover, the Ayat equates between
the weakness of both the fly and man. These scientific facts, though recently
discovered were mentioned by the Quran fourteen centuries ago.
Allah has given us many other examples citing insects, sush as the Ayat in the
2nd Surah that cites gnats
"Allah does not disdain to give a parable
about a gnat or larger creature" (2:26)
and the bees:
"Your Lord revealed to the bees, (saying): Build your homes in the
mountains, in the trees, and in the hives which man shall make for you, Feed on
every kind of fruit, and follow the trodden path of your Lord"
"From its belly comes forth a fluid of many hues, a healing (drink) for men. Surely in this there is a sign for those who would give thought" (6:68-69).
Moreover, The Quran named two surahs by the names of insects: The Bees and the Ants. It also cited the ants saying: "an ant said: '0 ants go into your dwellings" (27:17).
All these examples and parables are meant to draw our attention to the perfection the greatness and the sophistication of Allah's creation that the "evolutionists" and unbelievers like Darwin are not able to explain or create similar creatures "though they combined to do this".
Ants, bees and gnats are among the most impressive and wonderous
creations of Allah in their sophistication, variation and diversion in physical
appearance and way of life. They are among the most enduring creations that can
practically live in any environment or climate.
Their number is beyond imagination, to the extent that some sources estimate
them to be 1x10 18 , while others say that they are at a ratio of one
million insects to each man living on earth. But regardless of their total
number, they are divided into many kinds whose number is more than three times
the number of all other species on earth, of which only a quarter has been
discovered (750,000 species).
"There is no animal on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are communities like your own»"(6:38)
Yet, all these kinds have the same characterstics. God created all of their parts: The head, the thorax, that has strong muscles to support the wings and the legs; and the abdomen which has eleven segments and which has the digestive and reproductive systems. In addition all insects have other features in common: They all have three pairs of legs, and they all lay eggs to reproduce. Yet their offspring does not undergo the same process to become fully grown insects. Some of these insects (the ants and locasts for example) are born with the same features of their parents, but they have to change their outer cover many times, before they grow into their full size, while the others such as the silkworm undergo a process of metamorphosis from a maggot into a caterpillar, in which they appear to be different insects in each stage. In the first stage the maggots' sole concern is to eat, and that is why Allah has ordered their mothers to lay their eggs in a place where food is nearby. He also has provided them with the means that enable them to be protected from their natural enemies. Some of these insects were provided by the ability to live inside the fruits they live on, while others that live on exposable tree leaves, were given bright colors that match the color of their environment. Allah also gave other insects frightening shapes and colors, or distasteful tastes and even poisonous elements that cause death to the animals that eat them. Some were given only the scent and the color of other poisonous insects so that other creatures will mistake them for poisonous ones, and refrain from eating them.
Let us go back to the larva stage, the chief and often the only
nutritive stage of the insect's life cycle, whose function is simply to
transform very large quantities of plant matter to animal matter and stay alive
during that time. This stage might last for many years, or it might be a very
short one. It is then followed by the pupa stage, which is similar to death or
temporary death. In this stage the larva stops feeding, and hangs itself to a
leaf, and then starts to form a cacoon usually of silk strings around her. It
in fact burries itself in her own grave.
When the cacoon is formed, a very strange phenomenen takes place. The larva was
composed of two parts: A part that was multiplying its cells, and another part
that was not growing. Now at the pupa stage, the multiplying part starts to die
while life begins to be pumped in the other part which begins to grow and
multiply using the food that has already been stored in the storage cells.
It is a process of life and death at the same time.
"He will give them life again Who created
them at first. He has knowledge of every
(kind of) creation" (Yasien :78).
This is what takes place in any second to billions of larvas and
pupas all over the earth. It is truly a lesson for the discerning. Allah the
Most Exalted, is showing us death and life, resurrection and return through
these small insects to remind us that He gives life and He takes it. When the
dead cells start to live, they begin to multiply, forming all the complex parts
of the adult insect with all its sophisticated organs: The eyes, the legs and
the wings which would enable it to fly for a distance that reaches in some
cases two thousand miles.
The new adult insects, that have come to being in a process that is similar to
resurrection, do not look any longer for food as they did when they were in the
larva stage. Their main concern at this new stage is reproduction to ensure the
continuity of the species. Allah's wisdom has seen to it that these insects'
main concern would concentrate on reproduction, so that as soon as they mate
and the females lay their eggs their life cycle ends and the cycle of their
offspnng begins.
The life cycle of'some of these insects, is so short that it does not last in the case of some adult insects like the may fly for more than 24 hours, while their larva would live for a very long time that reaches five years. During this period it will live in water feeding on other living things and constituting at the same time a ready meal for fish.
On the other hand, adult may flys do not have mouthes, since they
do not eat during their very short life cycle. In contrast, other insects such
as butterflies whom Allah gave a mouth that looks like an elephant's trunk to
use in sucking the nectar of flowers, though they do not use the food to grow,
for their size stays the same until they reproduce and die. The males of these
butterflies move from one flower to another enjoying their beautiful colors and
odors and sucking their nectar. They would also be lured by the wonderful
colors of the female butterflies, chosing the females with the most beautiful
colors to mate with, thus reproducing the most beautiful offspring.
All this precision, perfection, beauty and integration puzzled all fair-minded
and illuminated scientests who grew nearer to Allah the more they studied these
creations... "From among His servants it is the learned who fear
Allah".
Let us take the mosquitoes as yet another example; these tiny insects that suck the blood of human beings, while the latter are incapable of preventing them or retrieving what was taken from them. Furthermore these insects inject in the human body some parasites and similar organisms that causes 'malaria and other infectuous diseases. Yet these insects exhibit a very strong difference between their males and females. For it is only the females that feed on human blood while the males' main nutrition is the nectar of flowers (Had the females shared the males with their nutrition the result would have been devastating, but Allah knows best). But the point is that this tiny creature that man might not attach any importance to, has more powerful wings than any machine that man's modern technology was able to produce.
Stranger still is that the insects' wings are not used only for
the purpose of moving from one place to another. They also make a buzzing sound
that serves as a language to communicate with one another in case they want to
warn against an enemy, or guide the others to the place of some delecious food.
They communicate these signals through their antennas; the most advanced
earsdrop instruments that modern science has not yet matched.
How could these antennas respond to vibration frequencies that are much higer
than the threshold of the human ear? I would like to mention in this repect
that it is Allah, Whose wonders are abundant in all His creations, Who has
equipped these insects with these hyper sensitive devices, whose shape and
outlook do not betray their tasks. These devices have taken the forms of
antennas and not the usual ear shape. It is therefore, within His powers, "He
who need only say: Be and it is",to enable man's skin and organs to
testify against him on the day of judgement:
"So that when they reach it, their ears, their eyes and their very skins will testify to their deeds. Why did you speak against us?' They will say to their skins, and their skins will reply: Allah who gives speech to all things, has made us speak. It was He Who in the beginning created you, and to Him you shall all return".
By: Dr. Abdul Wahab Al Hakim