Qur’anic Integrity And Scientific Advancement (5/9)

The Uniqueness of Fingertips

In 1823 - Jan Purkinje, a Czech physiologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, published a thesis discussing.

In 1858 – William Herschel, alluded to the fact that fingerprints are different from one person to another. This makes the fingerprint an exclusive characteristic of each person.

Juan Vucetich, an Argentine chief police officer, created the first method of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file, associating these fingerprints to the anthropometric system of Alphonse Bertillon, who had created, in 1879, a system to identify individuals by anthropometric photographs and associated quantitative descriptions.

“Does man think that We will not assemble his bones? Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips.” [Qur’an, Surah Al- Qiyamah, 75:3- 4]

The pagans of Makkah had denied that mankind would be raised on the Day of Resurrection. They wondered, ‘How is it possible for God to assemble the bones of the dead?’ God said that not only is He capable of assembling the bones of the dead but is also able to perfectly put together the tips of the fingers.

The question is why did God choose to use the body part ‘fingertips’ as an example of His ability in resurrecting. A human being making the same point may have opted to say ‘proportion his face’ – for that would apparently seem to be of a greater difficulty and more visible differentiation – fingertips not being something  you would traditionally associate with difficulty or uniqueness.  God knows the uniqueness He has placed in each human being. The verse stresses that every detail of man shall be brought back to life even to the extent of the information that exists on a fingertip. Only the Creator would have said these words in this way.

The Skin – Sensation of Pain

Shaykh Zindani said, “People used to believe that all the parts of the human body feel pain regardless of where a person is struck, until the advancement of anatomy revealed the truth that not all parts of the body feel pain and that it is only the skin that is the source of pain. For example, if you bring a needle and insert it into the body of a person, the pain stops as soon as it passes through the skin into the flesh. Scientists discovered with the help of a microscope that nerves are centered in the skin and that sensory nerves are of different kinds. Some of them feel touch, some feel pressure, some feel heat and some feel coldness. They realised that the nerves that give the sensation of heat and coldness are only found in the skin.”

“Indeed, those who disbelieve in Our verses - We will drive them into a fire. Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment...” [Qur’an, Surah An-Nisa’, 4:56]

God tells us that He would exchange the disbeliever’s roasted skins for other skins in order to exacerbate the pain they shall suffer in the fire of Hell. He said, “Every time their skins are roasted through”, i.e., totally burned with all nerves of sensation and pain. He associated between the sensation of pain and the skin when roasted and burned totally, thus losing its structure and function. When sensation of pain is lost, a new fully composed and functional skin is replaced, where the nerve ending responsible for the painful sensation of heat and burn perform and function to make the disbeliever taste the punishment of being burned with fire over and over again.

Taking skin burns as a distinct cause for the skin sensation of pain, burns can be divided into 3 types:

degree 1. Burns of first (sun burns): these affect the epidermis causing swelling and moderate pain. The phenomena of redness, swelling and pain usually disappear within two to three days.

2. Burns of second degree: epidermis and dermis are injured. In such a case, a detachment occurs between epidermis and dermis, causing the collection of secretions between these two layers. The injured person suffers from severe pain, and excessive increase of pain sensation, due to irritation of exposed nerve ending particularly after the outburst of blisters. The skin starts to heal within 14 days as a result of the process of renovation and inversion under the skin.

3. Burns of third degree: the whole skin thickness is burned and perhaps the injury may reach the muscles or the bone. The skin loses elasticity and becomes rough and dry. In this case, the injured person does not feel much pain, as nerve endings have been damaged almost completely due to burning.

For 3rd degree burns, the nerves in the skin are completely destroyed and there will be no longer the feeling of any pain.

Frontal Lobe of the Brain

“No! If he does not desist, We will surely drag him by the forelock - A lying, sinning forelock.” [Qur’an, Surah Al-Alaq, 96:15-16]

Shaykh Zindani writes, “The holy Qur’an describes the front of the head being lying and sinful. God says, “A lying sinful nasiyah (front of the head).” Since the front of the head does not speak, how can it be described as being lying? It does not commit sins. How is it then said to be sinful?

Professor Muhammad Yusuf Sukkar dispelled my perplexity while he was talking to me about the function of the brain. He said: “The function of the portion of the brain that lies in the front of the human head is to control the human behaviour.” I said: “I have found it.” He said: “what have you found?” I said: “The interpretation of the saying of God, "a lying sinful nasiyah.” He said: “Let me consult my books and references.”

After having done so, he, confirming what he had said, added: “When a person intends to tell a lie, the decision is made in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is the front of the head. If he wants to commit a sin, the decision is made there, too.” Then I discussed the subject with a number of specialized scholars, among whom was Keith L. Moore, who stated that the front of the head is responsible for judging and for directing human behaviour. The working organs of the body (e.g. the limbs) are but tools to carry out the decision made in the front of the head.

The anatomical structure of the upper region of the forehead shows that it consists of one of the bones of the skull, called the fronted bone, which protects one of the lobes of the brain called the frontal lobe, which contains several neural centers in various locations and with various functions. The prefrontal cortex constitutes the bulk of the frontal lobe of the brain, and its function is involved in the making of one’s personality. It is also considered as a superior center among the centers of concentration, thinking and memory. It plays a significant role in the person’s emotion and it is somehow concerned with initiative and discrimination.

The cortex is situated directly behind the forehead; it is hidden deep in the front of the head. Thus the prefrontal cortex directs some of the human behaviour that reflects one’s personality, with respect to being truthful, lying, right, wrong…etc. It also distinguishes between these virtues and vices and urges one to take the initiative whether with good or evil intent.

In a joint research on the scientific miracle of “nasiyah” by Keith L. Moore and me, presented in an international conference held in Cairo in 1980, Keith L. Moore did not talk about the function of the frontal lobe of the human brain only, but talked about the function of the ‘nasiyah’ [frontal lobes] in the brains of various animals. Demonstrating pictures of the fronted lobes of a number of animals, he said: “The comparative anatomical study of human and animal brains shows that the nasiyah has the same function: It is the center of control and guidance in both man and animals that have brains.”

His saying drew my attention to the saying of God,

“...There is no creature but that He holds its forelock...” [Qur’an, Surah Hud, 11:56]

I also called to mind some of the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, such as: “O God! I am your servant and the son of your servant and the son of your bondmaid, my nasiyah (front of the head) is in Your Hands…” and: “I seek refuge with you from the evil of everything whose nasiyah is in Your Grasp.” and: “Horses have goodness embedded in their nasiyahs, till the Day of Resurrection.”

From the meanings of these texts we can conclude that the nasiyah is the center of control and guidance of both human and animal behaviour.

Professor Keith L. Moore says, “The information we now know about the function of the brain, was not mentioned throughout history, nor do we find anything about it in the medical books. Should we survey all the medical literature during the time of the Prophet and several centuries thereafter, we would find no mention of the function of the frontal lobe (nasiyah), or an explanation of it or a statement about it except in this Book (Qur’an).

The function of the frontal lobe was known for the first time in 1842, when a railway worker in America was hit with a bar that pierced his forehead. That affected his behaviour leaving the other functions of his body intact. Only then doctors came to know the function of the frontal lobe of the brain and its bearing on human behaviour. Doctors, up to then, had thought that this portion of the human brain was a mute region with no function.

Who, then, informed (Prophet) Muhammad that this portion of the brain (nasiyah) is the center of control and guidance in both people and animals and that it is the source of telling lies and committing sins?....Who, then, told (Prophet) Muhammad in particular, of this secret and this fact? It is the Divine Knowledge that no falsehood can approach from before or behind it. It is a witness from God that the Qur’an is from Him.”

(Continued)