When I visited Thailand years ago, I had the pleasure of tasting about 20 different types of exotic, tropical fruits like pineapple and mango, some of which were first in my life. Each had a unique color, shape, smell, and taste. It occurred to me then that there were plants and fruits in places that we would never visit in our lifetimes and we would never have the chance to taste or smell them, but our tongue was still capable of tasting, smelling, and getting pleasure out of every one of them.

Take the orange for instance. Since it is more easily available and not as exotic as other fruits, we may incline to underestimate it; but in fact it is one of the countless bounties we are blessed with. There are currently over 600 known different types of oranges and they serve as a rich source of vitamin C that helps enhance our body’s resistance against illnesses such as the common cold. Therefore, our need for this vitamin increases particularly in the winter. With a beautiful color and smell, oranges contain a plethora of beneficial minerals such as thiamine, and vitamins such as vitamin A [1]. Vitamin C, another vitamin richly found in oranges, is an excellent antioxidant substance that fights carcinogenic free radicals. It is also essential for the protection of skin health. Oranges are also good sources of fibers and potassium that are crucial for heart health. Potassium lowers the risk of high blood pressure. Fibrous content of oranges helps to prevent diabetes development [2].

This fruit is only one of so many blessings that we are unable to count. For us to be able to appreciate these blessings we need to see, taste, feel, smell, and digest them, each of which is another reason to be grateful.

Seeing

We have to see and like the appearance of a food first before deciding to eat it, don’t we? We do not want to eat it if we feel disgusted from the way it looks. Our eyes are windows unto life so that we can see and observe the great book of the universe which is filled with miraculous works of art and get to know the divine names and attributes that manifest on them.

“Indeed, the Compassionate Provider, in order to give to them provision in more generous measure has created each of man’s subtle capacities – eye and ear, heart, imagination, and intellect – in the form of a key to His treasury of mercy. For example, the eye is a key to the treasury containing such precious jewels as the fairness and beauty to be seen on the face of the universe, and the same holds true of all the others mentioned; they all benefit through faith.” [3]

Everything – from fruits and vegetables to the eggs served by the chicken and the honey put together by bees – is created subtly and packaged in a way to appeal to our eyes in unique and protective enclosures.

Appetite

We have to have appetite so that we develop a desire to eat food. This desire is a capacity encoded into our being so we can enjoy good food and feel aversion for certain things.

“Appetite and desire for sustenance are a sort of innate or instinctive thanks.” [4]

Consuming sustenance with appetite is a way of expressing our thankfulness to the One who provides them for us, for we have appetite for the things we are appreciative of. If we do not have any appetite then we would have no desire to eat even the most delicious food. This is sometimes the case when we are ill and refuse to eat even our most favorite dishes. But think of our commonplace orange again. Like other fruits and vegetables, the orange is created with a shape or allure that will whet our appetite. God has placed sustenance at the very center of His workings in the world of living beings and guides us to this sustenance through the urges of appetite. His servants, on the other hand, are supposed to respond to these blessings with remembrance, reflection, and thankfulness.

Touching

For us to be able to taste and eat an orange, we first have to hold it in our hands. For an action as apparently simple as touching or holding anything, what “we” have to do is only to exhibit willingness to do so. Most of the processes in our bodies occur beyond our control. The joints in our fingers, the size of our hands, and the design of our arms meet our needs in the best way.

It may be an ordinary act for us to move our hands and finger joints with the help of the muscles wrapped around our bonds and triggered into action with electric signals coming through nerve cells. However, when we contemplate on all of these processes we come to the conclusion that they are not casual at all:

“Yes, we see for instance that the members and bodily systems of a fly or human being, and even the cells of the body and red and white corpuscles in the blood, are placed with so sensitive a balance and fine a measure, and they are so fitting and suitable for each other, and their mutual proportion with the other members of the body is so orderly, and they are in such harmony with them, that it is in no way possible that one lacking infinite knowledge could have given them those situations.” [5]

Smelling

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) likens believers who read the divine revelation to an orange “whose fragrance is sweet and whose taste is sweet” and those believers who don’t recite are like a date fruit, which tastes sweet, but with no fragrance [6].

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi draws attention to the manner of benefiting from the bounties of God as follows:

“Know, O Friend, that the gifts God has ordained that humanity attain or make use of come with conditions. Some of these conditions are established by God, while others pertain to human beings themselves. For example, light, air, food, and speech are God’s gifts, and how much we benefit from them depends upon our respective organs’ soundness and health. All senses and organs have been created by God Almighty; our role is to keep them sound and healthy.” [7]

The role of our willpower is limited to the functioning of these organs which are required for obtaining and consuming the sustenance needed for our survival.

When we look at an orange closely its shiny skin with thousands of tiny holes catches our attention. After the fruit is picked from a tree it remains fresh for a long time thanks to air coming through the holes in its peel.

It sends out a fragrant smell as it is sliced down. The inner parts of the peel are covered with a white, thick, and soft layer as if it is plastered. There are round, tiny buds with voids between them immediately beneath the outer peel. Like cushions, they add flexibility and strength to the peel. Inside we find segments that look like each other and are placed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The segments are covered with a strong membrane and protected with white, fibrous walls. The segments contain hundreds of shiny and swollen tiny sacs, each of which are arranged regularly like miniaturized grapes and are also covered with membranes. These juice sacs are protected in this manner because the juice in these sacs contains vitamin C which quickly degrades upon contact with air.

“Let us imagine an army which consists of four hundred thousand nations, and each nation requires different provisions, uses different weapons, wears different uniforms, undergoes different drill, and is discharged from its duties differently. If this army and camp has a miracle-working commander who on his own provides all those different nations with all their different provisions, weapons, uniforms, and equipment without forgetting or confusing any of them, then surely the army and camp point to the commander and make him loved appreciatively.” [8]

Digesting

“Especially the members, faculties, and senses of a single of the innumerable members of those species; they are related to each other with so fine a balance and equilibrium that their balance and mutual proportion point to an All-Wise and Just Maker so clearly as to be self-evident.” [9]

The arrangement of teeth, the shape of the tongue, and the structure of the mouth function in perfect harmony with the alimentary canal, the stomach, and other digestive organs. Teeth are responsible for biting and grinding food, but if the structure and arrangement order of our teeth had differed, i.e., if our grinders had been replaced with incisors, the acts of biting and chewing would be much harder.

If our tongue did not assist us in the acts of turning and grinding food in our mouth, or if it had been larger or smaller, this would have complicated food consumption for us. This also applies to many other wise purposes related to the mobility of our chin or functions of saliva.

Oranges, or whichever blessing you may take as an example, are a sign for us to contemplate and be grateful to the One who generously provides them for us.

“He it is Who sends down water from the sky, and therewith We bring forth vegetation of every kind (from their seeds under the soil), and then from it We bring forth a lively shoot, from which We bring forth close-packed and compounded ears of grain, and from the palm-tree – from the spathe of it – dates thick-clustered hanging (ready to the hand), and gardens of vines, and the olive tree, and the pomegranate: alike (in the fundamentals of life and growth) and diverse (in structure, look, taste, and smell). Look at their fruit, when they begin to fruit and as they ripen. Surely in that there are signs for people who will believe and who will deepen in faith (as they see new signs)” (An-An’am, 6/99).

References

1. “What to know about oranges”, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/272782.
2. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Şualar (Rays), Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2010, p. 162.
3. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Mektubat (Letters), Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2010, p. 412.
4. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Şualar (Rays), Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2010, p. 635.
5. Bukhari, At’imah, 30.
6. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Mesnevî-i Nȗriye (Epitomes of Light: Mathnawi al-Nuriya), Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2010, p. 84.
7. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Asâ-yı Musa (Staff of Moses), Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2010, p. 20.
8. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Şualar (Flashes), Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2010, p. 384.

The heart is composed of four compartments: two atriums and two ventricles. The blood that reaches the heart first accumulates in the atriums. From here, it is sent to the ventricles. Afterwards, it is redistributed to the body by the contractions of the ventricles. The harmony of this process depends on the electrical currents in our hearts.

How is the electrical current formed?

There is a particular region in the heart called the sinus node. The sinus node is strip of a muscle that is 15 mm in length, 3 mm in width, and 1 mm in thickness, and is located in the right atrium of the heart. The cells of this strip are responsible for producing electrical currents, and are created in a different fashion from the rest of the cells that are responsible for producing contractions. This is where the electrical currents in our hearts are periodically produced. Every cell in the body contains elements such as sodium, calcium, potassium and chlorine that are electrically charged. The elements which are electrically charged are called ions. These ions also exist in the extracellular environment. The intra cellular and extra cellular concentrations of these ions are different from each other. This situation causes a difference in the electrical potential between the interior and exterior of a cell. This difference is called a membrane potential. Periodically, the membrane potentials of the sinus cells show sudden jumps – meaning they suddenly increase and then suddenly decrease. Since the cells are in close contact with each other, such a jump in the membrane potential of one cell triggers a jump in the membrane potential of another cell. The electrical currency that enables the contraction of the heart is produced by this continuous triggering of cells. On average, 70 electrical currents per minute are produced in the sinus node. These currents start being produced while a person is in the womb of their mother and continues their whole lifetime. The heart of an embryo starts beating while it is only 22 days old. However, the height of the embryo at this point has not even reached 1 cm. Isn’t it an amazing force that creates the beating heart of such a small embryo and keeps it going a lifetime?

How is the electrical current distributed?

Another node called the atrio ventricular node was created in between the atriums and ventricles in our heart. While the current coming from the sinus node is spread to the whole of the atrium, it is by this node that the current is sent to particular fibers. The task of this node is to hang on to the current coming from the sinus node for a while. Why does the current need to be held on to? Because blood can only enter the ventricles while it is resting and by holding on to it, the contraction of the ventricles is disabled while the contraction of the atriums is taking place. By this process, the blood coming from the atrium can enter the ventricle. Therefore, the blood fills in the ventricles and can be distributed throughout the body. The blood circulation is enabled in a flawless manner by allowing the atriums to do their duty while the ventricles wait.

After passing through the atrio ventricular node, the electrical currency eventually goes through the purkinje fibers. These fibers surround the ventricles like a web and are composed of cells that can conduct electrical current in a very fast manner. Compared to the atrio ventricular node, the electrical current can be conducted 150 times faster in the purkinje fibers. Therefore, the current reaches every point of the ventricles in a very short period of time. Every muscle in the ventricles contracts in a time shorter than one tenth of a second.

The muscles in the ventricles rapidly contract, one by one, depending on when the current reaches them. The contraction starts at the end of the ventricles and carries on towards the main veins exiting the heart. By this orderly and harmonious contraction, the blood is pumped from the end of the heart towards the main veins exiting the heart to be distributed among the body. Because all the ventricle muscles are stimulated very fast, the contraction also happens very fast, resulting in a strong pumping effect. The design of this system is incredibly wise, right down to its most minute detail.

Movement in heart muscle potential

As all cells in our body, the cells in the heart also have a membrane potential. We had stated before that this membrane potential is the result of the difference in intra and extra cellular ion concentrations. The charges of these ions are different from each other. For example, sodium and potassium have plus one (+1) charges, calcium has a plus two (+2) charge, and chlorine has a negative one (-1) charge. The resting potential of a cell is negative. This means that there are more negative ions within the cell when compared to its environment. Sodium, calcium, and potassium ions are mobile through the membrane. While sodium and calcium have a higher concentration outside the cell, potassium has a higher intra cellular concentration compared to its environment. There are channels created on the cell membrane that allow ions to pass through the membrane. The sudden increase in the membrane potential that was explained before causes a sudden rush of sodium ions inside the cell. This is such a rapid movement that it is concluded in a tenth of a second. Right after the entrance of the sodium ions, calcium ions also enter. Because these ions are positively charged, the membrane potential becomes positive.

With the entering of calcium ions into the cell, calcium ions are also released from the storages within the cell. By triggering the protein necessary for these contractions, the calcium ions become a means for the contraction of the heart muscles. Meanwhile, the potassium channels open and these ions within the cell pass to the extra cellular environment. The loss of positive ions results in the membrane potential being negative again. Therefore, the sudden jump in membrane potential that is the basis for the electrical current is created.

However, at this point there are extra amounts sodium and calcium within the cell and extra amounts of potassium outside the cell. The concentrations need to be returned to their original values for the next jump in the membrane to be possible. This task is given to a protein called the sodium-potassium pump that pumps out sodium from the cell and pumps in potassium. If this pump had not been created, the ion balance in any of the cells within the body would be impossible to re-establish. As a result, the life of the cells would come to an end. However, because of the remarkable intricacy of our cells, life is made possible for us.

Afterwards, some amount of the calcium ions are pumped out of the cell with a similar pump, while the rest are stored within the cell. The decrease in the concentration of calcium relaxes the muscle. Now the heart muscle has gone into relaxation and therefore is ready for the next contraction.

If the movement of the ions becomes unbalanced, the rhythm of our heart is disturbed. The unbalance in the ion movements or blockage in heart veins can be reasons for heart rhythm disorders. Even small heredity-based defects in the ions pumps affect the movement of these ions and can cause heart rhythm disorders. This situation shows that nothing is created by coincidence.

Movement in the sinus node

The jump in the membrane potential of a heart cell depends on the membrane potential jump of the previous cell. Through the gaps in between the cells that are in contact with each other, the positive ions that exit a cell reach the membrane of the cell next to it and trigger the opening of its ion pumps. As a result, the membrane potential of that cell starts changing. At this point, you may have this question: how does the electrical current start in one end of the sinus node that is not previously triggered by any cell?

This concept is explained by the ion transfer mechanism of the node cells being different than the muscle cells. Before explaining this, it should be noted that even while resting, a mechanism for allowing an ion exchange of the cell with its surrounding has been created. In the node cells, this exchange while at rest has been created in a way that the sodium and calcium exchange is larger and the potassium exchange is lower compared to the muscle cells during resting conditions. Therefore, the membrane potential of the node cells is less negative and slowly increases with time. As a result of this slow but steady increase, after a while it reaches a threshold. When it reaches it, the calcium channels in the membrane suddenly open and there is a rush of calcium ions into the cell. Thus, the jump in the membrane potential is created independently from another cell.

As it can be observed, even a single contraction of our heart depends on a very detailed, delicate, and complex system. Moreover, this system is repeated over a hundred thousand times within one day. After reflecting on this, how can we claim this system runs by coincidence or chance?

Why is this surface area so large? What could the wisdom behind it be? Tiny endoplasmic canals play a role in inner cell transportation and distribution of matter. ER is the organized industry district in the cell. Most of the factories of molecules produced by chemical reactions are found here. ER is the production spot in the cells of proteins and hormones. Consequently, a broad surface area is very necessary and important.

Different degrees (pH) of acid are necessary for each reaction. However, because the acid necessary for one reaction can negatively affect the other reactions, thousands of opposite, intricate and different reactions take place. For this reason, membrane surface areas need to be wide. Sometimes hundreds of protein molecules are produced in just a second in a cell. The rapid and flawless lining up side-by-side of tens, hundreds or thousands of amino acids can only be achieved with a knowledge and power that surpasses these very small structures.

Wrapping the inside of the cell like a web and forming a buffer against mechanical effects, ER is responsible for establishing the flexibility and soundness of the cell. In muscle cells, ER takes the name Sarcoplasmic Reticulum (SR), which has a very important duty in the contraction of muscles. The size of the surface area of SR in the muscles of the structural frame is proportionate to the speed of muscle contraction. Consequently, there is more SR in muscle cells where there is rapid contraction. SR also serves as a calcium depot in muscle cells. Normally calcium is a deadly poison for the cell, and for this reason it is kept out of the cell. The concentration of calcium outside the cell is 10,000 times more than it is inside the cell. However, SR stores calcium in the cell in its own body. Thus, it both prevents the cell from being harmed and it provides the necessary calcium for contraction.

ER has the duty of eliminating the poison in the liver cells from the body by means of gall. For example, jaundice-causing bilirubin is a deadly poison for the brain especially in newborn babies. If jaundice is not treated, motor loss (paralysis) and intelligence loss can result from brain damage. Bilirubin and glucuronic acid combine by means of some enzymes on the surface of ER in the liver and are thrown into the gall bladder. In this way ER plays an important role in making foreign matter harmless and in reducing the side affects of medications to a minimum. Babies’ sensitivity to some medications during the first three months of life is due to ER’s not yet being developed enough to eliminate their harmful effects.

If it is taken into consideration that all of these mechanisms exist in human, animal and plant cells, it can be clearly seen that a broad and complex structure in such a small volume and its many functions can only have been placed there by the All-Powerful whose knowledge, wisdom, artistry, will and power permeate every moment and every spot.

Celaloglu is a freelance writer from Turkey with a degree in biology.

I consist of 217 bones in your body (however, since the bones in the thigh and sacrum areas fuse together in order to form a stronger bone, their number decreases, and the anatomists accept the number of bones as 206). I have 22 skull bones, 33 spinal bones, 24 rib bones, 64 bones in the hands, the forearms, the arms and the shoulder girdle and 66 bones in the feet, the legs, the thighs and the hip area. In addition, I have 6 small ear bones, 1 breastbone and 1 hyoid bone (at the root of your tongue), which make up the total of my 217 bones. It is quite amazing that so many different bones have cooperated with each other and contributed to such a perfect system.

Each piece of my skeleton has been created with special shape and quality that is proper to its place and duty. The bones that protect your brain are flat, whereas the bones in your arms and legs are long and cylindrical; while the bones in your wrists and ankles are short and rounded, your hips and girdles have been made of wide and big bones. The craggy surface of my bones makes it easy for the muscles to attach to them firmly. Each bone has certain durability that protects me from undue weight, flexure, twisting, and pressure. Bioengineers carefully examine my bones that have been created in a perfect form for where they are positioned and for what they do. They take my wonderful structure as a model, and they use it for producing new technology such as buildings or bridges. As you know, constructional engineers have to be very careful in their estimates of material and durability. They have to use different materials for different places, and these points will be exposed to forces like pressure, compression, tensile, or flexure (bending). If the estimates of the materials are not made accurately, the building or the bridge can easily collapse. When you humans build a strong building, it might be too heavy and bulky, resulting in a waste of material and money. Even if you use good quality material, if you do not use it in the right place, all your work might be unusable. Unlike human beings, the Creator has made me such a delicate and well-balanced system, in which you cannot find any material missing or unnecessary or any wrong line in a particular bone. That can only be explained with the boundless knowledge of God the Almighty. He knows exactly how you will be able to do hundreds of different movements in all your life-including running, lying down, jumping, lifting a heavy item, playing sports, writing, and eating. In order to allow you to perform those actions, He has created a perfect design for each piece of my bones and the joints that connect them.

In building my structure, He has used materials in different hardness and durability to make your movements easy. The first material is the bones. Not all bones are the same. Compact bone (dense bone) is found in my hardest parts. For example, the long bodies of the femur, the tibia, and the fibula (bones between knee and ankle) are made of compact bone, and they are very rigid and strong. Softer bones, which look like a sponge, are found at the edges of those long bones and within my flat bones. The second material, my cartilage, is placed at the bone edges and on the joints where, by absorbing excessive pressure, the cartilages are able to prevent damage to the surface of joints and to the nerves that go through the vertebra. My cartilages achieve this thanks to their soft and flexible substance, which also provides a perfect aesthetical quality. In addition, because of this flexibility given by God, cartilages protect the bones from breaking easily (depending on the rigidity of the bones), and they balance your strong and abrupt movements. If it were not for the cartilages on the joints, not only the bony surface would be damaged but also my movements would be mechanical and harsh just like those of a robot. My third material is the ligament, and its main substance, the fibers, that are made of collagen protein. The fibers of this ligament are very strong straps, which hold my bones and cartilages together.

All my joints and tendons that fasten the muscles to my bones are tied up and strengthened by those ligament fibers, which vary in shape, length, and quality. The collagen fibers are also used as the basic substance of my bones and cartilages. Those fibers, which are placed among the cells of the tissues of my bones and cartilages, provide the tissues with strength and durability. The distribution of the fibers in my bones is determined according to the direction and intensity of the pressure coming upon me. To see an example, you can look at the head of my femur (between my knee and thigh) where it makes a joint with the thigh bone. The spread and design of the fibers placed right at this joint requires a flawless calculation, which you can better understand by examining a diagram of it.

Not all my joints are flexible in the same degree. For example, the joints in your skull, which protects your brain and sensorium, resemble the toothed blade of a saw. They are strong joints, which are firmly locked with each other, and they allow no mobility. Of course, it can be no one but God who is able to give my skull such strength and hardness, since He knows exactly how much protection my delicate brain, eyes, and ears need. Moreover, my skull is not shaped simply as a bony capsule; at certain places, God has put little channels for the blood vessels to go through, little cavities for the sensory organs, and a big hole for the spinal cord to connect to the brain. Can any of these be formed by coincidence? The joints between the vertebrae (little bones of your spine) are more movable than the skull and less movable than your fingers. They help to allow you stand upright and sit, twist, and bend or lie down. The joints in my shoulders and legs are freely movable, which enables you to do movements in all directions. Perhaps the most wonderful of all are the joints in your hands! It would not be a distortion to say that-behind all your work to make a discovery or an invention or a new technology-is the skillful creation of my hand joints. Everything that you use with your hands-including all kinds of tools, furniture or appliances, art works, and books-can be produced or utilized only through the perfect ability of my joints to move. If my fingers lacked that great ability to move freely, many of my thoughts or intentions would not be able to be translated into actions.

Your muscles that help in the movement of all my movable parts have to attach to my bones to be supported. While one end of your muscle holds my bone firmly, the other end pulls another bone with the help of the joints. That is how movement in your body occurs and how you can take a step, do exercise, or wave your hand.

Although not as much as the skin, I have a very good ability to renew myself. When one of my bones is broken, if you line up the two pieces exactly in relationship to each other, the bone cells, called osteoblast, quickly divide to produce new cells, fill the gap, and repair the break. Then, I take calcium salts, which harden and strengthen the area, and gain back my health. Calcium is a vital mineral in the growth of bones. When you are a little but growing fetus in your mother’s womb, you need plenty of calcium for your bones to develop. If your mother gets sufficient amounts of dairy products, fish, and green vegetables, there will not be a calcium deficiency. But the good news is that, even if an expectant mother does not get enough calcium, the unborn baby is unlikely to have calcium deficiency. That is because Our Lord God, whose Mercy is infinite, provides baby with calcium by making it be absorbed from the mother’s bones and teeth and ensures the healthy development of the baby’s tiny skeleton. The mother has the willpower to feed herself, but since the baby is helpless, its need is met by the calcium taken from the mother’s body. After birth, the baby has to be nourished well with calcium and vitamin D by means of healthy foods, and it has to have enough exposure to sunlight. In order to maintain my health, my biggest need is calcium salts and vitamin D, a vitamin that needs the body’s exposure to the sun in order to contribute to healthy bone growth. For this reason, you have to take care of me especially at your young age. If you do not get those salts and vitamins, your bones will not develop well, and this could result in skeleton disorders.

The cavities within my bones are called marrow cavities (or medullar space) and they have important duties too. If your bones were filled merely with bony substance, my weight would be too much, and you would not even be able to stand up. Moreover, my bones would not be as strong as they are now. According to calculations with static forces, a rounded iron stick, which is filled, is less durable than the one with a hole in it, and the stick with a hole in it can be bent easily. My long, rounded bones have been designed according to that principle, and they are more resistant to twisting and bending. Another important function of my marrow cavities is to house the production of little red blood corpuscles, which have important duties within the blood. When you are young, all my bone marrows are red, and they produce red blood cells. Then, slowly after the puberty, the bone marrows in my long rounded bones start to turn yellow, get fatty, and produce white blood cells. The spongy bone marrows in my flat bones, however, stay red in color during your entire life, and they keep producing red blood cells.

The shape and size of my bones and their proportions to each other all determine the shape and quality of your body. Although I develop according to my genetically inherited qualities, the loads that you made me carry and outside impacts all affect my development significantly. When you are a baby, my bones start out as cartilages. At young ages when I am just starting to become bony, if I have to carry too heavy things, I start to harden and become bony too fast. This leads to the incomplete growth of the length of your neck bones, and your arms and legs which will remain too short. Playing basketball or volleyball stimulates the growth and elongation of your bones. Mineral salts, vitamin D, and the hormones secreted by the parathyroid gland play role in the ossification of my bones. The elongation of my long bones is achieved by the cell division and formation of new cells in the areas called epiphysis, which are the rounded ends of the long bones. This bone-lengthening process ends after puberty. While the lengthening of bones stops earlier in girls around ages eighteen or nineteen, it continues in boys until the ages twenty-one or twenty-two, which is the reason why men are generally taller than women.

When you were born, all of my components were cartilages, which are very soft and flexible. That is the measure that the all-knowing and all-caring God has taken, to ensure that neither you nor your dear mother gets any harm during your birth. If I became bony before the birth, your mother could die, and many of your bones could break during the birth. However, thanks to the cartilaginous components, which are like plastic, the risk of death and becoming disabled decreases greatly. As you become older, the cartilages are replaced with bone cells, and the accumulation of calcium salts make me hard and bony. The cartilages remained only on the joint surfaces and at the ends of ribs.

Dear Peter! Now it is time to ask a question that might bother you a little: have you ever been at a reopening of a grave? Sometimes in graveyards, when they do not have extra space for new burial, the dead person’s body is buried next to a body that belonged to a family member. When the grave is reopened, you can clearly see that, except for the newly buried body, all parts of the other dead body have been mingled with the earth. You can see that only my skull and other bone components have remained without decaying. After a very long time, those bones will decay too but much later than my other tissues. In the past, when the Holy Qur’an was just being revealed, some people refused to believe in God and the Day of Judgment, and asked: “Who is going to resurrect those decayed bones?”(Qur’an 36:78). The following verse is an answer: “Say, ‘He who created them in the first place will give them life again: He has full knowledge of every act of creation’” (Qur’an 36:79). In many other verses of the Qur’an, which deal with both the first creation and the Judgment Day, also mention decayed or dried bones, which still exist after many years. This means that God wants to draw your attention to the bones of your body! Perhaps, He is saying: “O, Peter! I created your bones, your joints, and your whole skeleton flawlessly. I took all measures for you to be able to live your life perfectly; to the littlest details, I created a delicate body, mind, and soul free of defects or faults. When I created you that perfectly, do you think I took something else as a model, or applied someone else’s plans? Not at all! Therefore, I, who created you out of nothing with my infinite knowledge and might, will of course be able to recreate you!”

Well, Peter! That is how I understand my Creator and the message of His Holy Book, which appeals to all of humanity. Your ability of comprehension and appreciation is more perfect than mine. Therefore, each time you move your body or body parts, just think of the wonderful pieces of bone accompanying and supporting your organs. Reflecting on them for some time will gain you a fresh view of life. That is what I wish as your skeleton!

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.

At the same time as these events are happening almost simultaneously, information from my eyes and my finger is being sent to the brain so that my finger will move in the way I expect it to. For example, if the path of my finger’s movement is somehow blocked, my brain can redirect it.

However, the event described above is not that simple. Starting from the neurons and continuing until we reach the muscles, every element that acts during this process displays extraordinarily complex alterations at both cellular and molecular levels.

Consider muscle cells, since they are moderately well understood. Upon arriving at the muscle cell, the electrical impulse causes the voltage-sensitive calcium channels in specific compartments within the cell to open and release calcium into the cell. You might remember from high school biology that muscle contraction is the result of two proteins (myosin and actin) sliding over each other. Normally, actins are masked by proteins known as tropomyosin. During the waiting period, therefore, the interaction between myosin and actin, which leads to contraction, cannot occur. This is why the muscle cell releases calcium, for when calcium is free in the cell, it binds to tropomyosin and enables it to move. As a result, actin is free to interact with myosin.1

After that, millions of molecules containing energy, known as ATP, bind to millions of myosin proteins, and the muscle contracts. When the contraction ends, the freed-up calcium is stored once again in specific compartments. When calcium is not present, tropomyosins again mask the actin proteins, and millions of muscle cells revert to their initial position, ready to respond to another contraction.

I realize that all of this is hard for the average reader to understand. However, the events that take place are even more complicated.

Expressions like “ATP binds to myosin” and “calcium is stored in compartments” are, in fact, simplified ways of explaining a highly complex event. Since there is a reason for everything, our cells should contain something that is performing these functions and carrying out such events. If we expand this problem to its limits, we will have to understand that each cell contains a large set of rapid and specific chemical reactions that occur constantly and yet do not interfere with one another. Based on current scientific knowledge, we can say that enzymes conduct almost all reactions in a cell, and that DNA has all the necessary information to produce enzymes. Enzymes are protein molecules that speed up and regulate all of the reactions that take place in a cell. If there were no enzymes, the reaction that a cell carries out in seconds could only be completed in thousands of years, and consequently, life as we know it would not exist. Life requires that the correct enzyme be found in the correct place and at the correct concentration.

Based on this, let’s revisit the above example. When the electric impulse reaches the muscle cell and calcium ions are released, this and every external and internal signal is conveyed to the DNA through a mechanism that we are just beginning to appreciate: signal transduction. Later, RNA is produced in those regions of the DNA that are responsible for producing the enzymes that enable the cell to give the appropriate answer (RNA helps DNA to produce enzymes). The synthesis of the enzyme is regulated at various checkpoints, such as during RNA production or RNA translocation out of the nucleus by other enzymes.2 ATPase, one of the many enzymes produced, makes it possible to use ATP, while another enzyme makes sure that the ATPases are in the correct location in the cell. Meanwhile, in order to sustain life, thousands of other enzymes conduct various reactions at the correct time and place. Therefore, when I move my finger, the number of active elements increases enormously.

Let’s look at the finer points of the cell. Using a simple calculation, in which each number is much smaller than the actual number used, if we assume that one million cells perform some kind of action from the reception of the first impulse in the brain until the time the muscle contracts, and if we calculate that one thousand reactions occur in each of these cells, this means that one billion reactions are performed for the simple action of moving a finger. One billion reactions, in just one second. And at the same time, my heart is beating, new blood cells are being produced, my eyes are sending visual information to my brain, my kidneys are filtering my blood, my lungs are exchanging old air with new, fresh air, my digestive system is supplying the necessary nutrients to my blood stream, and much, much more. Moreover, all of these are continually taking place. The fact that all of these actions are occurring, again based on a very rough and simple calculation, means that maybe one trillion reactions are occurring every second. As a result, a person might feel that it is quite possible, at any instant, for this perfect machine-the human body-to fall apart.

Realizing this, one might actually find it hard to believe that he or she is really alive. For example, I would never believe that such a machine would work if I did not have the empirical knowledge that it does work. How, for example, can I believe that I can produce one trillion reactions every moment and never confuse one with another, that it takes one billion reactions to move my finger, and that one trillion gears are working by themselves without making any mistakes?

With this idea in mind, I see the following lines in Epitomes of Light: “Also, since a building that contains every kind of artwork and riches cannot exist without having been built by someone, the existence of this universe is intimately connected with the existence of the Builder. If someone thinks carefully, it is impossible to accept one without the other.”3 Upon reading these words, I start to realize that all of these gears are not working by themselves, but rather that every second all of the trillion gears are being regulated by the One for whom nothing is difficult.

Suddenly, I remember that whenever the names of God are recited, I hear the name al-Hayy right next to al-Qayyum: God is He besides Whom there is no god; He is al-Hayy (the Ever-Living), al-Qayyum (the One Who sustains and protects all that exists) (Qur’an 2:255). Putting al-Qayyum next to “life” indicates, at least to me, that every living being is kept alive at each instant by al-Qayyum. If His control over each person’s existence were to be lost for even one second, one trillion gears would become irreversibly mixed up and the body would fall apart instantly. While thanking God for all that He has given me, I realize that I cannot thank Him enough for even one gear.

References

1. Harvey Lodish et al., Molecular Cell Biology, New York: Scientific American Books, c1995, 1027-29.
2. Lewin, Benjamin, Genes VI, Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997, 847.
3. Nursi, S., Epitomes of Light: Mathnawi al-Nuriya: The Essentials of the Risale-i Nur, Kaynak A.S., 1999.

Quantum mechanics developed as an attempt to explain discrepancies observed in experiments that could not be explained by classical theory. Scientists hoped that it would help them understand human consciousness, since, in a parallel manner, behaviorism could not explain adequately the complex structure of human behavior.

The intersection of physics, psychology, and biology led to a new pseudo scientific field: quantum consciousness. Although some say it is nothing more than a fantasy,(1) others have found the concepts offered by quantum mechanics to be useful.

Classical physics cannot explain the human consciousness and mind.(2) Newton’s well-established laws of mechanics posited a deterministic universe. In short, he stated that if every detail of a system were known at a particular time, its future state could be predicted precisely. As classical physics perceives the universe as consisting of objects and fields, and requires nothing further to explain the systems, there is no place for such concepts as consciousness and mind. Materialistic theories generally based on the classical approach do not deny the mind’s existence; they just say is has no effective action on the brain.(3)

Quantum Mechanics

What basic principles of new physics allow the mind to control matter? Quantum mechanics was an unnoticed revolution. Set in a probabilistic world, it changed the whole idea of a deterministic universe. Unlike classical physics, quantum mechanics cannot talk of future events with complete certainty; it can only evaluate the probability that a certain event will occur. The Uncertainty Principle, which prevents a precise and simultaneous determination of a particle’s velocity and position, means that all trajectories assigned by Newtonian mechanics to describe the resulting motion are invalid.

In a quantum world, waves are associated with particles. These probability waves carry all information about a given quantum object. At this point, the probability function says nothing about the particle’s actual movement and state. Such an observation requires a measurement.

However, this means collapsing the wave function into one of the probable results. When such a measurement is made, the particle will be found in one of the probable states. Thus one cannot know the system’s actual state either between observations or in the future. This is why determinism collapsed and the universe became a collection of probable events. Even Einstein denied the concept of such a bizarre and perplexing result: “God does not play dice!”

How do scientists use quantum mechanic tools to study consciousness? Do they really explain how the brain works and the subtle relation between consciousness and matter?

Are Mind and Matter Somehow Related?

The mind-matter connection remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries. It requires a comprehensive approach featuring a deep understanding of how the brain functions, physical laws, and human psychology. Although there are different approaches, the main problems are how to explain this connection scientifically and how to close the gap between the brain’s material structure and the tremendous results of its functioning.

Since the time of Descartes (d. 1650), one general approach has been to treat the mind and brain separately by placing them in different categories. One model based on this duality involves finding a parallelism between a computer’s hardware and software and the human mind and brain, respectively.

This is not the only approach, however. The materialist idea, based on the deterministic universe model, focuses on the brain’s functioning and either disregards mind and consciousness or supposes them to be illusory. For decades, this view had a great impact on theories related to the brain and mind. Minsky’s approach of “minds are simply what brains do” reflects quite literally this approach.(4)

On the other hand, the natural occurrence of necessity for a mind or a soul, as a result of a quantum mechanic view of the brain, to have control over matter seems to cause a change in both evolutionary and materialistic models of conscious thought. This was a direct consequence of applying quantum mechanics to chemical reactions occurring in the atomic world of neurons.

Indeed, some claimed that various processes in living bodies required a quantum mechanic treatment. For example, light-sensitive cells in a human eye (in a retina, which is considered part of the brain) are sensitive to even one photon that is truly a quantum particle.(5) Eccles, a neurophysiologist famous for his contributions to neuroscience, discusses quantum effects in synaptic action and claims that some functional parts of neurons need to be treated as quantum sites.(6)

The materialistic view taught that when brain cell interactions were understood completely, nonmaterial concepts would become unnecessary. Interactions between neurons are now said to cause conscious thought. Therefore, neuroscience focuses on explaining brain cell (neuron) interactions.

The Role of Neurons

Neurons are connected to each other by their strands (axons and dendrites) across synapses (Figure 1). Electrical signals are carried by neurotransmitters located in synaptic gaps (Figure 2). The release of neurotransmitters is initiated by calcium ions entering the synapses from the fluid surrounding the cell. Calcium cations cross into the cell through calcium channels.

Stapp treats calcium channels as the area in which quantum consciousness can be applied, and where the effect of the mind comes into play. Diffusing a small calcium cation (a positively charged ion) through the calcium channel cannot be treated as a classical phenomenon, for in a classical diffusion each particle follows a certain trajectory through the channel. But when considered from a quantum view, the particle (or cation), starting from one end of the channel to the other end, takes all possible paths at the same time. Only a measurement can locate the particle in one of the channel’s possible paths [collapse of state into one of the probable events]. Therefore, one path becomes real. In a real transmission, since there is no measurement, the mind chooses the path, which supports the theory that matter can be controlled by the mind. Since the chosen trajectory will either enhance or decrease the probability of neurotransmitter release, the whole communication process will be affected. Due to this probabilistic nature of events, the mind should control the brain.(7) Sir John C. Eccles, a British neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize winner for his work on how neurons communicate with each other, is an important contributor to the mind-brain interaction issue. He focuses on microsites where synaptic vesicles (little bags of neurotransmitters) are released. (The figurative structure of a synapse is shown in Figure 2.) He claims that the process taking place in those microsites is a quantal emission (a release of multimolecular packets). In the synapse of two neurons, vesicles are stored in certain places and released according to electrical impulses. Eccles emphasizes that the mind (or mental events) does not initiate any activity in those synapses; rather, he hypothesizes that mental events control only the probability of each vesicle’s release from the microsites. In this model, he agrees with Margenau, who also says there are such things as nonmaterial events(8): “The mind may be regarded as a field in the accepted physical sense of the term. But it is a nonmaterial field; its closest analogue is perhaps a probability field. It cannot be compared with the simpler nonmaterial fields that require the presence of matter (hydrodynamic flow or acoustic)…Nor does it necessarily have a definite position in space. And so far as present evidence goes it is not an energy field in any physical sense, nor is it required to contain energy in order to account for all known phenomenon which mind interacts with brain.” According to Eccles, microsites are targets for such nonmaterial mental events as an intention to carry out some movement. Pointing out that vesicles are released without any energy input, the mind’s effect on them is seen in the form of an increased probability of neurotransmitter release. Eccles, who believes in the soul, supports the dualist approach starting from self-consciousness and the unity of self. In his How the Self Controls Its Brain, he summarizes his approach with a quotation from Hodgson(9): “What we are looking for, I think, is a purpose that we should try to recognize and pursue, which our lives if correctly lived will fulfill in fact, and which is right and good. It may also be God’s purpose for us. I think that the notion of a purpose of life makes more sense in relation to a God, or some wider consciousness, than it otherwise would.” Victor J. Stenger, a proponent of the materialistic view, summarizes the materialists’ general idea of quantum consciousness theories: “The myth of quantum consciousness should take its place along with gods, unicorns, and dragons as yet another product of the fantasies of people unwilling to accept what science, reason, and their own eyes tell them about the world.” A comparison of points made by Eccles and Stenger shows that science cannot be independent of the thoughts of those who establish it. This is why quantum consciousness theories remain controversial.

Conclusion

Despite the ongoing controversy over quantum mechanics, quantum consciousness is an important first step toward explaining how the mind might control matter. Solving the mind-brain issue could revolutionize neuroscience and artificial intelligence. A better understanding of quantum mechanics and its applications to neuroscience might help scientists solve the mind-matter puzzle. However, we should keep in mind that: “I think that is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it ‘But how can it be like that?’ because you will go ‘down the drain’ into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.” (Richard Feynman)

Footnotes

1 Victor J. Stenger, “The Myth of Quantum Consciousness,” The Humanist 53, no. 3 (May-June 1992): 13-15. 2 Henry P. Stapp, Mind, Matter and Quantum Mechanics, part 1 (Germany: Springer-Verlag, 1993), 37. 3 C. John Eccles, How the Self Controls Its Brain (Germany: Springer-Verlag: 1994), 4. 4 Nick Herbert, Elemental Mind, Human Consciousness and the New Physics (New York: Dutton, 1993), 116. 5 Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind: A Research for the Missing Science of Consciousness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 349. 6 Eccles, How the Self Controls Its Brain. 7 Herbert, Elemental Mind, 258. 8 Eccles, How the Self Controls Its Brain, 73. 9 ibid, 39.

References (not cited in article)

1. Davies, Paul, Other Worlds, (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1980), p.17-35.
2. Eccles, C. John, How the Self Controls its Brain, (Springer-Verlag, Germany, 1994).
3. Herbert, Nick, Elemental Mind, Human Consciousness and the New Physics, (Dutton, New York, 1993), Chap. 4,10.
4. Hodgson, David, The Mind Matter: Consciousness and Choice in a Quantum World, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991), p.47, Part IV.
5. Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind, A Research for the Missing Science of Consciousness, (Oxford University Press, New York, 1994), chap. 7.
6. Stapp, Henry P., Mind, Matter and Quantum Mechanics, (Springer-Verlag, Germany, 1993), Part I, p.79-116.
7. Stenger, Victor J., “The Myth of Quantum Consciousness,” The Humanist, May/June 1992, Vol. 53, Number 3, p.13-15.