The Pituitary Gland: Regulator of the Human Body
The brain contains a pea-sized organ that weighs around 0.5 grams (0.017 ounce) and, amazingly enough, supervises and regulates the entire body. Known as the pituitary gland, this most complex, flawless, and vital administrator distributes jobs to countless hormones and monitors each one, all of which have their own appointed tasks, without interruption.
We move our heads and arms, see, hear, smile, speak, and touch all at the same time. We remember what people have said to us and analyze things. All of the sensations that reach us and our movements take place by means of hormones. The pituitary gland enables hundreds of processes to take place simultaneously, flawlessly, and without delay. There is no question of any hormone running late; being unable to transmit the messages that reach them; or, apart from exceptional cases of sickness, of hearing what a person who is talking to us only after several minutes have passed; or of not feeling the sensation of being burned before the burn appears on our hands. This is because the tiny pituitary gland, which consists of protein, water, and fat, flawlessly carries out all of its tasks because Allah, the Lord of the worlds, wills it to do so.
Anything that any entity does occurs only because of His will, for nothing is independent of His power and control. When Allah so wills, He manifests His Own might and greatness as He wills through a particular entity that He has created. Everything we see or do not see, but that we know about, is a separate manifestation of His infinite Greatness:
That is Allah, your Lord. There is no deity but Him, the Creator of everything. So worship Him. He is responsible for everything. Eyesight cannot perceive Him, but He perceives eyesight. He is the All-Penetrating, the All-Aware. "Clear insights have come to you from your Lord. Whoever sees clearly does so to his own benefit. Whoever is blind, it is to his own detriment. I am not here as your keeper." (Surat al-An'am, 102-04)
The Perfect Detail That Protects Ice-Dwelling Polar Bears
The human body contains many extraordinary systems. How they work, function uninterruptedly, take precautions in the face of difficulties, and never make a mistake is beyond belief. However, all living things on Earth, from giant whales to ants, from single-celled algae to tigers, have equally amazing features. It is literally miraculous that anyone witnessing this extraordinary state of affairs should still deny His works:
Even if We sent down angels to them, and the dead spoke to them, and We gathered together everything in front of them right before their eyes, they would still not believe unless Allah willed. The truth is that most of them are ignorant. (Surat al-An'am, 111)
Take the example of polar bears, who live in a cold ice-shrouded environment. By grasping the surface of the ice via a vacuum effect, thanks to the cavities between its toes, a polar bear can travel long distances on ice. This web-like structure between its toes also enables it to walk at a speed of 10 km per hour (6.2 mph) and travel 100 km (62 miles) without resting. The apparently white hairs in its special 5 cm (2 in) thick fur are actually transparent and, because of their fiber optic properties, prevent heat loss and transmit the Sun's warmth to the black hairs beneath. Immediately under the fur is a 10 cm (4 in) thick layer of fat that provides further protection against the cold. When it swims, its hairs form a protective shield by adhering to one another and serving as a waterproof diving suit. Thanks to all of these features, a polar bear can maintain its 37-degree body temperature under water or on the ice.
Such highly detailed and flawless structures, all of which are of the greatest importance for continued life on Earth, reveal that they could not have come about by chance. Moreover, scientists cannot produce them. Allah flawlessly creates all things. In the case of the polar bear, He places this animal on the ice enables it to survive its harsh environment. This is a constant reminder of the greatness of Almighty Allah, Who creates the states and behavior of all things by His will:
And He has made everything in the heavens and on Earth subservient to you. It is all from Him. There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect. (Surat al-Jathiyyah, 13)
The Superior Details in a Pair of Eyes
When you look at these lines, an electric current traveling at 500 km per hour (310.7 mph) begins moving from your eyes to your brain by any of its 600,000 nerves. When the current is transmitted, you begin reading the lines before you.
The eye is linked to the brain by 600,000 nerves, which simultaneously receive and arrange 1.5 million messages at the same time and send them to the brain at 500 km an hour (310,7 mph). When you look at a single point, you actually see hundreds of different details that the eye distinguishes from all of the massages reaching it and then analyzes and forwards to the brain. While this book you are holding is quite close to you, the scene you see in the background is, at the same time, comparatively far away. And yet you see both of them with the same clarity, for not a single point in your line of sight is overlooked or unclear. No matter how detailed the view you are looking at is, even the image of a small ant that happens to be in your line of sight reaches your brain.
No camera or television could provide such a high degree of clearness, and so all man-made technology is inferior to the human eye. If people are deprived of this blessing, they will be unable to see anything until this system is restored. And that can only happen by Allah 's choosing.
This special blessing, created for human beings while they are still embryos, is a gift from Allah, Who is always needed and from Whom aid may be hoped for at all times:
Say: "It is He Who brought you into being and gave you hearing, sight, and hearts. What little thanks you show!' (Surat al-Mulk, 23)
The Superior Detail in Taste Perception Cells
We can remember the flavor of a food we enjoyed ten days ago. If we eat it again, we can perceive the same taste once again and experience the same enjoyment, because its taste is now familiar. However, the tongue's taste cells are not the same as the ones that existed ten days ago. Every day our taste cells come into contact with acidic foods that are hotter or colder than the body's temperature. Hot tea, an ice-cold fruit juice, thick coffee, or bitter grapefruit juice all damage these cells to some extent. But by His will, new cells mature in the taste buds to replace those that have completed their life's work.
Even if people are unaware of them, these processes occur so quickly that the taste cells we use at dinner are not those we use at breakfast. And yet we do not imagine ourselves to be eating that food for the first time. We never confuse an apple's flavor, because every new cell contains exactly the same knowledge as the old cell. In fact, all of our cells are constantly being renewed, and yet one's nose never changes shape and one's hair never changes color. New cells never install themselves in the wrong place, and thus everything always retains the same shape.
If the old taste cells were not renewed, we would be unable to taste anything. A delicious meal or a piece of wood would taste the same. We would forget what sweetness was and be unaware if a piece of food were poisonous or rotten, for only specially created taste cells can initiate this superior process and blessing. In fact, Almighty Allah, the Creator and Lord of all beings, has created these cells with a perfect memory and a sublime renewal system. This and thousands of other similar blessings are His gifts, for He is generous to His servants, forgives unrequitedly, and is all-compassionate:
Praise be to Allah, to Whom everything in the heavens and on Earth belongs. Praise be to Him in the Hereafter. He is the All-Wise, the All-Aware. (Surah Saba', 1)
Water: One of His Greatest Blessings
Water makes up three-fourths of Earth and around 70% of the human body. It enters each cell and travels through every vein, carries food and gives oxygen and energy to all of our 100 trillion cells. Thus, it is an incomparable blessing for life.
If water were more fluid than it actually is, living things' structures would be confronted by its destructive effect and soon collapse. In such a state, water could not support these delicate molecular structures, and so each cell's delicate structure would collapse. If water were thicker than it actually is, the controlled actions of small organelles and such macromolecules as proteins and enzymes would cease and cell division would become impossible. All of a cell's vital functions would freeze, and so the cells would begin to die one by one, making the organism's death just a matter of time.
From the tiniest molecule to the whales in the oceans, everything on Earth needs water, and therefore water has been created with a specific level of viscosity specially designed to benefit all of them: Earth, living things, a living entity's body, and even that particular body's smallest molecule. Even with present-day technology, scientists cannot produce another fluid with the same properties and capable of reaching every cell.
Allah has made the glorious details that human beings lack the power to produce essential for all people and has bestowed them in abundance. Doing so reminds people who can think and reflect on His might, and dwelling on just one of these life-giving elements enables them to thank Him for His blessings and appreciate His greatness:
Allah sends down water from the sky and by it brings the dead ground back to life. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who hear. (Surat al-Nahl, 65)