By Babatunde Jose
Not only does the existence of matter, of motion, and of life, testify that there is God, but the magnitude and magnificence of creation announce the same grand truth: the work reveals the Workman.
“Our Lord is He Who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature, and further, gave (it) guidance. (Quran 20:50) See also (Quran 13:3)
Imbued with the mores of the cultures that created them, archaeological sites shed light on past civilizations, preserving their societal structures, religious beliefs, and modes of living. By studying these sites, scholars are often able to trace their histories, as well as their place in the historical continuum. Many foreshadow art and architecture as we know them today.
Stonehenge, Pyramids, The Sphinx, Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, Chichén Itzá, Great Wall of China; all offer clues to their builders’ aesthetics and values. Blind chance never built these architectural wonders. There must have been a controlling intelligence.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews indulged in no mere poetic rhapsody when he wrote, “Every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God.” Hebrews 3:4
Allah is He Who raised the heavens . . .. He doth regulate all affairs, explaining the Signs in detail that ye may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord. (Quran 13:2)
“…So also the universal harmony by which the whole mechanism is regulated, indicates a character of infinite perfection in harmony with itself. Thus, seen from no higher point of view than the scientific and philosophical, the dome of the sky bears, wrought on its expanse, in starry mosaics, ‘There is a God’” (The Gordian Knot) James Harvey.
Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the Night and the Day; in the sailing of the ships through the Ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; In the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth; (here) indeed are Signs for a people that are wise. (Quran 2:164)
On this Earth too, we are confronted with phenomena, for which no explanation is adequate save that of an Almighty, benevolent, and infinitely wise Creator. “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of men: the earth is full of Thy riches. These all wait upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them meat in season. Thou openest Thy hand, they are filled with good” (Psalm 104:14).
Consider that atmospheric pressure upon a person of ordinary stature is equal to the weight of 14 tons, and it scarcely needs to be pointed out that the falling upon him of a very much lighter object would break every bone in his body and drive all breath out of his lungs. The Creator’s having so devised that the air permeates the whole of our body, and by its peculiar nature pressing equally in all directions, all harm and discomfort is prevented. (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The air performs many functions for the good of mankind. While it covers us without any conscious weight, the air reflects, and thereby increases the life-giving heat of the sun. The air does this for us much as our garments supply additional heat to our bodies. The air co-operates with our lungs, thereby ventilating the blood and refining the fluids of the body, stimulating the animal secretions, and regulating our natural warmth. We could live for months without the light of the sun or the glimmering of a star, but if deprived of air for a very few minutes we quickly faint and die.
It is this gaseous element enveloping the earth which both sustains and feeds all vegetable life.
By the undulating motions of the air, all the diversities of sound are conducted to the ear.
Let us then inquire, what is it that has endowed the atmosphere with such varied and beneficent adaptations, so that it diffuses vitality and health, retains and modifies solar heat, transmits odours and conveys sound? Must we not rather ask “Whom?” and answer, “This also cometh from the Lord!
There in the firmament we behold an endless succession of clouds fed by evaporation from the ocean, drawn thither by the action of the sun. The clouds are themselves a miniature ocean, suspended in the air with a skill which as far transcends that of the wisest man. It is because so very few “stand still and consider” the amazing fact of millions of tons of water being suspended over their heads and sustained there in the thinnest parts of the atmosphere, that such a prodigy is lost upon them.
But what most fills us with wonderment is that these celestial reservoirs, so incalculably greater than any of human construction, should be suspended in the air.
The ocean and its inhabitants present to our consideration as many, as varied, and as unmistakable, evidence of the handiwork of God as do the stellar and atmospheric heavens. If we give serious thought to the subject, it must fill us with astonishment that it is possible for any creatures to live in such a suffocating element as the sea, and that in waters so salty they should be preserved in their freshness; and still more so that they should find themselves provided with abundant food and be able to propagate their species from one generation to another. Yet by the wisdom and power of God not only are myriads of fishes sustained there, but the greatest of all living creatures-the whale-is found there.
As it is with us in the surrounding air, so it is with the fish in their liquid element. According to James Harvey, “They are clothed and accoutred in exact conformity to their clime. Not in swelling wool or buoyant feathers, nor in flowing robe or full-trimmed suit, but with as much compactness than and with as little superfluity as possible. They are clad, or rather sheathed, in scales, which adhere closely to their bodies, and are always laid in a kind of natural oil—which apparel nothing can be lighter, and at the same time so solid, and nothing so smooth. It hinders the fluid from penetrating their flesh, it prevents the cold from coagulating their blood, and enables them to make their way through the waters with the greatest possible facility. If in their rapid progress they strike against any hard substance, this their scaly doublet breaks the force of it and secures them from harm.”
Being slender and tapering, the shape of fishes fits them to cleave the waters and to move with the utmost ease through so resisting a medium. Their tails, are extremely flexible, consisting largely of powerful muscles, and act with uncommon agility. By its alternate impulsion, the tail produces a progressive motion, and by repeated strokes propels the whole body forward.
Still more remarkable is that wonderful apparatus or contrivance, the airbladder, with which they are furnished, for it enables them to increase or diminish their specific gravity, to sink like lead or float like a cork, to rise to whatever height or sink to whatever depths they please.
As these creatures probably have no occasion for the sense of hearing, for the impressions of sound have very little if any existence in their sphere of life, to have provided them with ears would have been an encumbrance rather than a benefit. Is that noticeable and benignant distinction to be ascribed to blind chance?
A spiritually minded naturalist has pointed out that almost all flat fish, such as soles and flounders, are white on their underside but tinctured with darkish brown on the upper, so that to their enemies they resemble the colour of mud and are therefore more easily concealed. What is still more remarkable, Providence, which has given to other fishes an eye on either side of the head, has placed both eyes on the same side in their species, which is exactly suited unto the peculiarity of their condition. Swimming as they do but little, and always with their white side downward, an eye on the lower part of their bodies would be of little benefit, whereas on the higher they have need of the quickest sight for their preservation. Now we confidently submit that such remarkable adaptations as all of these argue design, and that, in turn, a designer, and a Designer, too, who is endowed with more than human wisdom, power and benignity.
“One circumstance relating to the natives of the deep is very peculiar, and no less astonishing. As they neither sow nor reap, they are obliged to plunder and devour one another for necessary subsistence. Were they to bring forth, like the most prolific of our terrestrial animals, a dozen only or a score, at each birth, the increase would be unspeakably too small for consumption. The weaker species would be destroyed by the stronger, and in time the stronger must perish, even by their successful endeavours to maintain themselves. Therefore, to supply millions of fishes with their prey and millions of tables with their food, yet not to depopulate the watery realms, the issue produced by every breeder is almost incredible.
They spawn not by scores or hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands. A single mother is pregnant with a nation. Mute though the fishes be, yet they are full of instruction for the thoughtful inquirer. Wise contrivances and logical arrangements involve forethought and planning. Suitable accommodations and the appropriate and accurate fitting of one joint to another unquestionably evinces intelligence.
In the Holy Qur’an, Allah, the Exalted, calls our attention to his creatures and appeals to us to study them closely in order that we may know that He is the Most Powerful, Most High, so that we can reference and worship Him. See Quran 7:174 and Quran 40:81)
Those who study medicine will appreciate the complexity and wonders of human systems. Allah praises Himself on these wonders: Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blesses be Allah, the Best to create! (Quran 23:14)
Allah did not stop at these wonderful creatures, but He gave mankind the intellect to explore them so as to get benefits from them.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
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