|
The
Signs in the Heaven and the Earth
Harun Yahya
Assume that you set up a big
city by bringing millions of Legos together. Let there be in this city skyscrapers, twisting roads, railway
stations, airports, shopping malls, subways and also rivers, lakes, forests and a beach.
Let there also be living in it thousands of people wandering in its streets, sitting in their
homes and working in their offices. Take every detail into account. Even
the traffic lights, box offices, and the signboards at the bus stations.
If someone came up to you and said that all the Legos of this city, which
you had founded by planning it right down to the smallest detail, and each
piece of which you had picked up with great pains, had been brought together
by coincidence to produce this city, what would you think of the mental
state of that person? Now, go back to the city you have built and consider that the whole city
would be leveled to the ground if you had forgotten to put into place even
a single Lego, or changed its place. Can you imagine what great balance and order you have had to establish?
Life in the world where we live is also made possible by the accumulation of
such a great number of details incomprehensible to the human mind.
The absence of even one of these details might mean the end of life on the earth.
Everything, every detail from the atom, the smallest unit of matter, to the
galaxies harboring billions of stars, from the moon, an inseparable adjunct
of the world, to the solar system, all work in a perfect harmony. This well-organized system runs flawlessly,
just like a watch. People are so confident that this billions-of-years-old system will
go on functioning without leaving out even the smallest detail that they can
freely make plans about something they think will be realized in the next 10
years. No one is worried about whether the sun will rise the next day.
A great majority of people do not think about whether the world may
ever chance to break free from the gravitation of the sun and start to move
towards the unknown in the pitch-dark space; or ask what keeps this from
happening?
In the same manner, when people are about to sleep, they are very confident
that their hearts or respiratory systems will not relax as their brains do.
However, even a few seconds halt in any one of these two vital
systems may well cause results that will cost one's life. When the glasses of familiarity which surround the whole of life and cause
every event to be assessed as if it is taking place in its natural course
are taken off, one is free to see that everything is made up of such closely
interdependent, meticulously planned systems that it is as if we were
hanging on to life by the skin of our teeth.
You notice an excellent order prevailing in every spot you turn your
eyes on. Certainly, there is a
great power that creates such an order and harmony.
The possessor of this great power is Allah, Who created everything
out of nothing. In a verse of
the Qur'aan, it is said:
"He
Who has created seven heavens in full harmony with one another: no
incongruity will you see in the creation of the Most Gracious. And turn your vision (upon it) once more: can you see any
flaw? Yea, turn your vision
(upon it) again and yet again: (and every time) your vision will fall back
upon you, dazzled and truly defeated." (Surah al-Mulk, 3-4)
When we look at the living beings in the heavens, on the earth and in all
that lies between them, we see that they all prove the existence of their
Creator in their own right. In
this chapter, we are going to dwell on the natural phenomena and living
beings that every one sees, yet never thinks about, and how they have come
into being and continue their existence.
If we were to write down all the signs of Allah in the universe, they
would fill many thousands of volumes of encyclopedias.
Therefore, in this chapter, we will only deal briefly with some
subjects that deserve to be pondered upon at length. However, even these brief mentions will help the conscientious men of
understanding to notice the most important fact of their lives or at least
will help them remember it once again.
For Allah Exists. To Him
is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth and He is known
through reason.
THE
MIRACLES IN OUR BODY
A Half-Developed Eye Cannot See
What
comes to your mind first when you hear the word eye?
Are you aware that one of the most crucial things in life for you is
your ability to see? Even
if you are, have you ever thought what other signs your eye bears? The eye is one of the most manifest pieces of evidence that living creatures
are created. All sight organs,
including animal eyes and the human eye, are extremely striking examples of
a perfect design. This
exceptional organ is so overwhelmingly complex that it surpasses even the
most sophisticated devices in the world.
In order for an eye to see, all of its parts have to co-exist and work in
harmony. For instance, if an
eye happened to have lost its eyelid, but still had all the other parts such
as the cornea, conjunctiva, iris, pupil, eye lenses, retina, choroid, eye
muscles, and tear glands, it would still be greatly damaged and soon lose
its seeing function. In the
same manner, even if all its organelles were present, if the tear production
were stopped, the eye would soon dry out and become blind. The chain of coincidences posited by evolutionists loses all its meaning
against the complex structure of the eye.
It is not possible to explain the existence of the eye other than as
a matter of special creation. The
eye has a multi-sectioned complex system and, as discussed above, all of
these individual sections had to come into existence at the same time.
It is impossible for a half-developed eye to function at half
capacity. In such a
circumstance, the act of seeing can by no means take place.
An evolutionist scientist admits to this truth:
The common trait of the eyes and the wings is that they can only function
if they are fully developed. In
other words, a halfway-developed eye cannot see; a bird with half-formed
wings cannot fly.
In this case, we again face that very important question: who created all of the
components of the eye all at once? The owner of the eyes is obviously not the one who makes the decision about
their formation. For it is
impossible for a being devoid of the knowledge of what seeing is like, to
desire to have a seeing organ and have it attached to his body.
So we have to accept the existence of a Possessor of superior Wisdom
Who has created living beings with senses such as seeing, hearing, and so
on. Another claim is that
unconscious cells gained consciousness-requiring functions such as seeing
and hearing by their own desire and effort.
It is very clear that this is impossible.
In the Qur'aan, it is stated that seeing has been bestowed upon
living beings by Allah:
"Say: He it is Who brought you into being and made for you the
ears and the eyes and the hearts: little is it that you give thanks."
(Surah al-Mulk, 23)
The Army Inside Man
Every day, a war is fought in the innermost parts of your body unperceived
by you. On the one side are
viruses and bacteria that aim to intrude into your body and take it under
control and on the other are the immunity cells that protect the body
against these enemies. The enemies wait in an offensive state to make their way into the area they
aim at and they head towards the target area at the first opportunity.
However, the strong, organized and disciplined soldiers of the target
area do not easily give in to the enemies.
First, the soldiers who swallow and neutralize the enemy soldiers
(phagocytes) arrive at the battleground.
However, sometimes the fight is tougher than these soldiers can
handle. On such occasions, other soldiers (macrophages) are summoned
up. Their involvement causes
alarm in the target area and other soldiers (auxiliary T cells) are also
called to battle.
These soldiers are very familiar with the local populace.
They quickly distinguish their own army from that of the enemy.
They immediately activate the soldiers assigned to weapon production
(B cells). These soldiers have
extraordinary abilities. Although
they never see the enemy, they can produce weapons which will render the
enemy ineffectual. In addition,
they carry the weapons they produce as far as they should be taken.
During this journey, they succeed in the difficult task of not
causing any harm either to themselves or to their allies.
Later, the striker teams cut in (killer T cells).
These discharge the poisonous material they carry on themselves at
the most vital spot of the enemy. In
case of victory, another group of soldiers arrives at the battleground
(oppressive T cells) and sends all the warriors back to their camp.
The soldiers who arrive at the battleground last (memory cells)
record all relevant information about the enemy, so that it can be used in
the event of a similar invasion in the future.
The excellent army discussed above is the immunity system in the human body.
Everything explained above is done by microscopic cells unobservable to the
naked eye. (For more
information please see For Men of Understanding: The Signs in the Heavens
and the Earth by Harun Yahya) How many people are aware that they have such an organized, disciplined and
perfect army inside their bodies? How
many of them are aware that they are surrounded on all sides by microbes
that, if unimpeded, would cause them to catch serious illnesses or even die?
Indeed, there are many dangerous microbes in the air we breathe, the
water we drink, the food we eat, and the surfaces we touch.
While one is unaware of all that is going on, the cells in ones body
make strenuous efforts to save one from an illness that may even bring
about ones death.
The ability of all immunity cells to distinguish enemy cells from body
cells, the ability of B cells to prepare a weapon to neutralize the enemy
that they have never seen, their ability to carry these weapons as far as
they have to be taken without adversely affecting any body cells, the
signal-receiving cells' fulfilling their duty completely without making any
objections, each of them knowing what to do, their returning to their places
without any problem as soon as they are finished with their work, and the
abilities of the memory cells are only some of the distinctive
characteristics of this system. For all these reasons, the story of the formation of the immunity system is
never taken up by any evolutionist writer.
It is extremely difficult for a person without an immunity system or with an
ill-functioning one to survive, since he would be exposed to all the
microbes and viruses in the outside world.
Today, such people can exist only in special enclosures with no
direct contact with anyone or anything outside.
Therefore, it is impossible for a person without an immunity system
to survive in a primitive environment.
This leads us to the fact that an extremely complex system such as
the immunity system could only have been created all at once and with all of
its elements.
A System Planned
in its Every Detail
Breathing, eating, walking, etc, are very natural human functions.
But most people do not think how these basic actions take place.
For example, when you eat a fruit, you do not think how it will be
made useful to your body. The
only thing on your mind is eating a healthy meal; at the same time, your
body is involved in extremely detailed processes unimaginable to you in
order to make this meal a health- giving thing. The digestive system where these detailed processes take place starts to
function as soon as a piece of food is taken into the mouth.
Being involved in the system right at the outset, the saliva wets the
food and helps it to be ground by the teeth and slide down the esophagus.
The esophagus helps the food be transported to the stomach where a perfect
balance is at work. Here, the
food is digested by the hydrochloric acid present in the stomach.
This acid is so strong that it has the capacity to dissolve not only
the food but also the stomach walls. Of
course, such a flaw is not permitted in this perfect system.
A secretion called mucus which is secreted during digestion covers
all the walls of the stomach and provides a perfect protection against the
destructive effect of the hydrochloric acid.
Thus the stomach is prevented from destroying itself.
The rest of the digestive system is likewise planned. The useful food pieces broken down by the digestive system
are absorbed by the small intestine walls and enter the blood stream.
The inner surface of the small intestine is covered with tiny
tendrils called villus. On top
of the cells over the villus are microscopic extensions called the
microvillus. These extensions
function as pumps to absorb the nutrition.
This way the nutrition absorbed by these pumps is delivered all
around the body by the circulatory system.
The point that deserves attention here is that evolution can by no means
explain the system briefly summarized earlier.
Evolution maintains that today's complex organisms have evolved from
primitive beings by the gradual accumulation of small structural changes.
However, as stated clearly, the system in the stomach could in no way
have been formed step by step. The
absence of even one factor would bring about the death of the organism.
When food is received into the stomach, the gastric juices acquire the
ability to break down food as a result of a series of chemical changes.
Now, imagine a living being in the so-called evolutionary process in
whose body such a planned chemical transformation is not possible.
This living being, unable to acquire this ability, would not be able
to digest the food it ate and would starve to death with an undigested mass
of food in its stomach.
In addition, during the secretion of this dissolving acid, the stomach walls
simultaneously have to produce the secretion called mucus.
Otherwise, the acid in the stomach would destroy the stomach.
Therefore, in order for life to continue, the stomach must secrete
both fluids (acid and mucus) at the same time.
This shows that not a step-by-step coincidental evolution but a
conscious creation with all its systems must, in effect, have been at work.
What all this shows is that the human body resembles a huge factory made up
of many small machines that work together in perfect harmony.
Just as all factories have a designer, an engineer and a planner, the
human body has an Exalted Creator.
ANIMALS AND
PLANTS
Millions of plant and animal types present in the world stand out as
evidence that prove the existence and might of our Creator. All of these living beings, a limited number of which will be described as
examples here, deserve to be examined individually. They all have different body systems, diverse defense tactics, unique ways of feeding, and interesting reproduction methods.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to describe all living beings with
all their features in a single book. Encyclopedias
of many volumes would not be enough for this task. However, even the few examples we will discuss here will be sufficient to
prove that life on earth can in no way be explained by coincidences or
accidental happenings.
From
Caterpillar to Butterfly
If you had 450-500 eggs and if you had to preserve them outside, what would
you do? The wisest course for
you would be to take precautions to prevent them from being scattered
around, say, by the wind, or other environmental factors.
Being one of the animals that lay the most eggs at one time
(450-500), the silkworms use a very intelligent way to protect their eggs:
they unite the eggs with a viscous substance (thread) they secrete to
prevent them from being scattered around.
The caterpillars that pop out of their eggs firstly find a safe branch for
themselves and then get tied to this branch with the same thread.
Later, to promote their own development, they start to spin a cocoon
for themselves with the thread they secrete.
It takes 3-4 days for a caterpillar that has opened its eyes very
recently to life to complete this process.
During this period, the caterpillar makes thousands of turns and
produces a thread an average of 900-1,500 meters long.
At the end of this process, it starts a new task through which it
undergoes a metamorphosis to become an elegant butterfly.
Neither the action taken by the mother silkworm to protect its eggs, nor the
behavior of a tiny caterpillar devoid of any awareness, education or
knowledge can be explained by evolution.
First of all, the ability of the mother to produce the thread it uses
to secure its eggs is miraculous. The
newly-born caterpillar's knowing the most suitable environment for itself,
its spinning a cocoon in accordance with it, its undergoing a metamorphosis,
and its coming through this metamorphosis without any problem are beyond
human comprehension. Hence, we
can simply say that each caterpillar is born into the world with a
foreknowledge of what to do, which means that it was 'taught' all of these
things before it was born.
Let us explain this with an example. What
would you think if you saw a new-born baby standing up a few hours after his
birth, getting together the things he needs to make his bed (like quilt,
pillow, mattress), and later putting all these together neatly, making his
bed and lying down on it? After you recover from the shock of the
event, you would probably think that the baby must have been taught in an
extraordinary way in his mother's womb to perform such a process.
The case of the caterpillars is no different from the baby in this
example.
This again leads us to the same conclusions: these living creatures come
into life, behave and live in the way determined by Allah Who has created
them. The Qur'anic verse
stating that Allah has inspired the honeybee and commanded it to make honey
(Surah an-Nahl, 68-69) provides an example of the great secret of the world
of living beings. This secret
is that all living beings have bowed to Allah's will and follow the fate
determined by Him. This is why
the honeybee makes honey and the silkworm produces silk.
The Symmetry in Wings
When we look at the butterfly wings in the pictures, we see a perfect
symmetry prevailing over them. These
lace-like wings are so adorned with patterns, spots and colors that each of
them is like a work of art. When you look at the wings of these butterflies, you
notice that the patterns and colors on both sides are fully identical, no
matter how intricate they may seem. Even
the smallest dot is present on both wings, thereby introducing a flawless
order and symmetry.
In addition, none of the colors on these thin wings mixes with the other,
each being sharply set apart from the other.
Actually, these colors are formed by the amassing of tiny scales
clustered one on top of another. Isn't
it a wonder how these small scales that are easily dispersed with your
hand's slightest touch can be arranged in both wings without any mistake in
their disposal so as to produce exactly the same pattern. Even the replacement of a single scale would destroy the
symmetry in the wings and impair their aesthetics.
However, you never see any muddle in the wings of any butterfly on
the earth. They are as neat and
elegant as if made by an artist. And
they are indeed made by an Exalted Creator.
The Animal with the Longest Neck: The Giraffe
Giraffes have many amazing characteristics.
One of these is that their neck stands on 7 vertebrae, just like that
of all other mammals, even though it is so long.
Another amazing fact about giraffes is that they do not have any
problem pumping blood up to their brain on top of their long neck.
A little thinking would make one notice how difficult it must be to
have the blood pumped so high. But
giraffes do not have any problem about this, because their hearts are
equipped with features to pump blood as high as necessary. This
enables them to carry on with their lives effortlessly.
Yet they still face another problem while they drink water.
Essentially, giraffes should have died of high blood pressure every
time they bent down to drink water. However,
the perfect system in their necks completely eliminates this risk.
When they bend down, the valves in their neck vessels are shut down
and they prevent excess blood from flowing to the brain. There is no doubt that the giraffes did not acquire these traits by planning
them in accordance with their needs. It
is even more implausible to say that all these vital features were shaped
over time through a gradual evolutionary process.
In order for a giraffe to stay alive, it is vital for it to have a
pumping system to transmit blood to the brain and a valve system to prevent
high blood pressure the minute it bends down.
If any one of these characteristics did not exist or did not function
properly, then it would be impossible for the giraffe to go on living.
The conclusion to be derived from all this is that the giraffe species was
born into the world with all the characteristics vital for its living.
It is impossible for a non-existent being to master its body and
acquire essential traits consciously. So,
giraffes unquestionably prove that they are created by a conscious creation,
that is by Allah.
Sea Turtles
Sea turtles living in the oceans surge in crowds
towards the beach when it is time for them to reproduce. This is no ordinary beach though. The beach they arrive at to reproduce has to be the one where
they were born. Sometimes sea
turtles have to travel as far as 800 kilometers to arrive there.
But a long and tough journey does not change the situation.
They arrive at the beach where they were born to give birth to their
offspring, no matter what. It is quite unaccountable how a living being can find
its way back to the very same beach 20-25 years after its departure from
there. It is all the more
extraordinary that it can find the direction of its birthplace in the depths
of the ocean where so little light penetrates, and then spot it from among
numerous similar beaches.
Finally, thousands of travelers with no compass meet
on the same beach at the same time. Initially
a mystery, the reasons underlying this insistent meeting came as a great
surprise when finally revealed. Since
turtles know that their offspring cannot survive in sea conditions, they
bury their eggs under the sand on the beach.
But why do all of them meet on the same beach, at the same time?
Would not the hatchlings survive if they did the same thing at
different times and on different beaches?
Those who did research on this topic were faced with a very
interesting situation. Thousands
of offspring under the sand have to overcome a number of formidable
obstacles after breaking their eggs with the hard lump on their head.
The hatchlings of an average of 31 grams cannot dig the earth layer
above them on their own and they all help each other.
When thousands of hatchlings on the beach start to dig the earth,
they make it to the sand surface in a few days.
Yet before they appear on the surface, they wait for a while for
nightfall. For in the daytime,
there is the danger of falling a prey to predators.
In addition, it would be quite difficult for them to proceed by
crawling on sands scorched by the sunlight.
When night falls, they go up to the surface after completing the
digging process. Although it is
dark, they rush to the sea and depart from the beach to return there as much
as 20- 25 years later.
It is impossible for these hatchlings to know that
they have to dig their way up after they pop out of their eggs and wait for
a while at a certain distance from the sea.
It is by no means possible for them to know, when they are still
buried in the earth, whether it is day or night, that predators exist
outside and that they could fall a prey to them, that the sand is scorching
because of the sun, that this could harm them, and that they must rush to
the sea. So, how does this
conscious conduct come about? The
only answer to this question is that these hatchlings have been somehow
'programmed' to behave in this way, which means that their Creator has
inspired in them the instinct that helps them protect their lives.
Bombardier Beetle
The bombardier beetle is an insect on which an
enormous amount of research has been done.
The trait that renders this insect so popular is that it uses
chemical methods to protect itself from its enemies. In moments of danger, the insect squirts hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone
stored in its body towards the enemy to protect itself.
Prior to battle, specialized structures called secretory lobes make a
very concentrated mixture of these two chemicals.
The mixture is stored in a separate compartment called the storage
chamber. This compartment is connected to a second one called the
explosion chamber. The two
compartments are kept separate from one another by a sphincter muscle. The moment the insect senses danger, it squeezes the muscles
surrounding the storage chamber while simultaneously relaxing the sphincter
muscle, and the chemical in the storage chamber is transferred to the
explosion chamber. A large
quantity of heat is released and a vaporization occurs.
The released vapor and the oxygen gas exert pressure on the walls of
the explosion chamber and this chemical is squirted at the enemy through a
channel leading outward from the beetle's body.
It is still a great mystery to researchers how an insect can harbor inside
itself a powerful system potent enough to trigger a chemical reaction that
could easily cause it harm while also isolating itself from the effects of
that system. No doubt, the
existence and working of this system is too complicated to be attributed to
the insect itself. It is still
a matter of discussion how the bombardier beetle makes such a system work
within its tiny body measuring about 2 cm in length, when human experts can
perform it only in laboratories.
The only apparent truth here is that this insect is a
concrete example completely refuting the theory of evolution, because it is
impossible for this complex chemical system to have been shaped by a series
of coincidental variations and passed on to future generations.
Even a minor deficiency or 'defect' in a single piece of the system
would leave the animal defenseless, so that it would soon be killed or it
would cause it to blow itself up. Therefore,
the only explanation is that the chemical weapon in the insect's body had
come into being with all its parts all at once and without any defect.
Termite Nests
No one can help feeling surprised at the sight of a
termite nest erected on the ground by termites. These nests are architectural wonders, rising as high as 5 or
6 meters. When you compare the size of a termite and its nest,
you will see that the termite has successfully completed an architectural
project about 300 times bigger than itself.
But what is even more astonishing is that the termites are blind.
A person who has never seen the huge nests built by blind termites
would probably think that they are made up of sand piles heaped upon each
other. However, a termite nest
proves to be of a marvelous design incomprehensible to the human mind:
inside there are intersecting tunnels, corridors, ventilation systems,
special fungus production yards and safety exits.
If you assemble thousands of blind people and give
them all kinds of technical tools, you can never make them set up a nest
similar to the one made by the termite colony.
So, just think:
·
How could a termite measuring 1-2 cm.
in length have learnt the architectural and engineering information
needed to make such a subtle design?
·
How could thousands of blind termites manage to work in
harmony to build this construction which is an artistic wonder?
·
If you divide a termite nest into two during the first stages
of its construction, and then reunite it, you will see that all passageways,
canals and roads fit each other. How
can this miraculous event be explained?
·
The conclusion to be derived from this example is that Allah
has created all living beings uniquely and without any prior example. Even
one termite nest is enough for a person to comprehend Allah and believe that
He is the One Who created all.
The Woodpecker
As we all know, woodpeckers build their nests by
boring holes in tree trunks with their beaks.
This may sound familiar to most people.
But the point many people fail to examine is why woodpeckers suffer
no brain hemorrhage when they beat a tattoo so vigorously with their heads.
What the woodpecker does is in a way similar to a human being driving
a nail into the wall with his head. If
a man ventured to do something like that, he would probably undergo a brain
shock followed by a brain haemorrhage.
However, a woodpecker can peck a hard tree trunk 38-43 times in just
two or three seconds and nothing happens to it.
Nothing happens because the head structure of
woodpeckers is ideally created for such a task.
The skull of the woodpecker has a remarkable suspension system that
absorbs the force of the blows. Its
forehead and some skull muscles adjoined to its beak and the jaw joint are
so robust that they help lessen the effect of the forceful strokes during
pecking. Design and planning do not end here.
Preferring primarily pine trees, woodpeckers check the age of the
trees before boring a hole in them and pick those older than 100 years,
because pine trees older than 100 years suffer an illness that causes the
hard and thick bark to soften. This
was only recently discovered by science and perhaps you may be reading of it
here for the first time in your life; woodpeckers have known it for
centuries.
This is not the only reason why woodpeckers prefer
pine trees. Woodpeckers dig
cavities around their nests, the function of which was not originally
understood. These cavities were
later understood to protect them from a great danger.
Over time, the sticky resin that leaks from the pine trees fills up
the cavities and the outpost of the woodpecker's nest is thus filled with a
pool whereby woodpeckers can be protected from snakes, their greatest
enemies.
Another interesting feature of woodpeckers is that
their tongues are thin enough to penetrate even ants' nests in the trees.
Their tongues are also sticky, which allows them to collect the ants
that live there. The perfection
in their creation is further revealed by the fact that their tongues have a
structure which prevents them from being harmed by the acid in the bodies of
the ants. Woodpeckers, each of whose characteristics is
discussed in a different paragraph above, prove with all their detailed
features that they are 'created'. If
woodpeckers had evolved coincidentally as the theory of evolution claims,
they would have died before they acquired such extraordinarily consistent
traits and they would be extinct. However,
as they were created by Allah with a special 'design' adapted to their life,
they started their lives by bearing all the vital characteristics.
Camouflage
One of the defense strategies of animals is
camouflage. Some animals have
the special protection of a body structure and coloration which are totally
adapted to their habitat. The
bodies of these living beings are so harmonious with their environment that
when you look at their pictures, you cannot tell if they are plants or
animals, or distinguish them from their surroundings. As will be seen in the following pages, the
incredible similarity of an insect to a leaf helps it escape the notice of
its enemies. It is obvious that
this tiny animal has not made its body look like a leaf.
Maybe it is not even aware that it is being protected because it
looks like a leaf. However, the camouflage is so deft that it readily
impinges as a defense tactic planned specially and 'created'.
False Eyes
There are some incredible and unimaginably
interesting defense methods in the animal world.
One of these is false eyes. With
such false eyes, various butterfly, caterpillar and fish species convince
their enemies that they are 'dangerous'.
The butterflies in the left pictures open their wings as soon as they
sense a danger and display a pair of eyes on each of their wings which
appear quite threatening to their enemies.
Let us take our
time and think: can these extremely convincing eyes be the result of a
coincidence? How does the
butterfly know that a pair of scary eyes appear when it opens its wings and
that this view would frighten its enemy?
Has the butterfly happened to see the pattern on its wings and
decided that this pattern was frightening and that it could use it in a
moment of danger? Such a convincing pattern can be the result only of a conscious
design, not of coincidences. Moreover,
it is by no means possible to think that the butterfly is aware of the
patterns on its wings and discovered this as a defense tactic by itself.
It is obvious that Allah, Who created the butterfly, bestowed on its
body such a pattern and inspired in the animal the instinct to use it in
moments of danger.
Water Lilies
Little flowers on the earth are mostly considered commonplace by
people, notwithstanding their overall perfection.
What prevents people from grasping the creation miracles in these
flowers is the familiarity brought about by seeing them everywhere and every
day. Therefore, flowers that
grow in a totally different place, under totally different conditions and in
totally different sizes will be assessed without the ' glasses of
familiarity' and thus help us grasp the existence of Allah.
Amazon water lilies that grow in the sticky mud covering the bottom
of the Amazon River are interesting enough to remove the 'glasses of
familiarity' from people, because they continue their lives not in the way
people are accustomed to and witness everyday, but with a very different
struggle. These plants start to
grow in the mud at the bottom of the Amazon River,
and then reach out towards the river surface.
Their goal is to reach the sunlight which is vital to their
existence. When they finally
reach the water's surface, they stop growing and develop thorny, round buds.
The buds develop into gigantic leaves with a reach of 2 meters in as
short a time as a couple of hours. 'Knowing'
that the more they cover the river surface with abundant leaves, the more
will they be able to make use of sunlight, these water lilies make ample use
of daylight to perform photosynthesis.
They 'know' that otherwise they will not be able to survive at the
bottom of the river due to the scarcity of light.
It is certainly quite inspiring for a plant to employ such an '
intelligent' tactic. However,
sunlight alone does not suffice for the Amazon water lilies.
They also need oxygen equally, yet it is obvious that this oxygen
does not exist in the muddy ground in which their roots are located.
This is why water lilies stretch out stems developing from their
roots upwards towards the water surface where their leaves float.
Sometimes these stems grow as tall as 11 meters; they are tied to the
leaves and function as oxygen-carriers between the leaves and the root.
How can a bud in its initial stages in life in the depths of a river
know that it needs oxygen and sunlight to survive, that it would not be able
to live in their absence, and that everything it needs is present on the
water surface? A being recently
introduced to life is aware neither of the fact that this water has an
ending point, nor of the existence of the sun or oxygen.
Therefore, if
the whole event is assessed from the standpoint of evolutionists, these
plants should long before have been defeated by environmental conditions and
become extinct. Nevertheless,
water lilies are still present today in all their perfection.
The unbelievable life struggle of water lilies continues well after
they reach light and oxygen on the water surface, where they curl the brims
of their huge leaves upward to prevent them from sinking. They can continue their lives with all these precautions, yet
they also know that these are not enough for their reproduction.
They need a living being that will carry their pollen to another
water lily, and this living being is a beetle (coleopterans) which has been
created with a special weakness for white color. They prefer
these white water lilies out of all the attractive flowers of the Amazon
River. When Amazon water lilies
are visited by creatures which will continue their species, they close all
their leaves, imprison them, and offer them ample pollen.
They let them free after keeping them for one night, and then change
their color so that they do not
bring the same pollen back to them. The
once pure white, glorious water lilies will now go on adorning the Amazon
river in pink.
Could such flawless and finely calculated plans be the work of a bud unaware
of everything? Of course not.
They are the work of the wisdom of Allah, Who created all things.
All the details summarized here show that plants, like all other
living beings in the universe, came into existence already furnished with
the most convenient systems, and this was thanks to their Creator.
CONCLUSION
Can the wind
form an airplane by coincidence? The
famous physicist Sir Fred Hoyle makes a very striking observation
about the origin of life. In
his book The Intelligent Universe he writes: “The chance that higher life
forms might have emerged in this way (by coincidence) is comparable with the
chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing
747 from the materials therein.”
This comparison
of Hoyle's is quite inspiring. The
examples that we have discussed above also reveal that both the existence of
life and the perfection of its present systems force us to look for the
great power making these come into being.
Just as a hurricane cannot produce an airplane as a result of
coincidences, neither is it possible for the universe to have come into
being as a result of unanticipated happenings and moreover to harbor extremely complex structures therein. In
truth, the universe is furnished with myriad systems of an infinitely greater complexity than those
of an airplane.
Everything we have said in this chapter confronts us with the evidence of
the flawless planning not only in our immediate surroundings but also in the
depths of space. One who
assesses these signs which are so evident as to be undeniable by both reason
and conscience can come to only one conclusion: there is no room for
coincidence in the universe; the universe was
CREATED with all the minutiae contained in it.
And Allah, the Creator of this flawless system, is He Who has
infinite
might and knowledge.
|
