“God contracts and expands.” (2:245)

The heart is a fairly small muscle that beats 100,000 times a day and produces roughly 115,000 Joules of energy, enough to boil a cup of water for some tea. Like a flowing river, deoxygenated blood travels from the right side of our body to the right side of our heart via valves and chambers until passing through our lungs, where each breath we take facilitates the oxygenation of every individual blood cell with 4 molecules of oxygen. The now oxygenated blood, continues to progress, never stopping, now through the left side of the heart, again passing through valves and chambers, eventually being pushed out to the rest of our body with the help of the left ventricle. The left ventricle is the thickest, largest, strongest, and most muscular part of the heart because it has the responsibility of pumping oxygenated blood through the aortic valve and aorta to the rest of our body. If this continual circulation is ever interrupted, it can lead to catastrophic outcomes.

There are several ways this flow can be interrupted, many of which happen before birth and require immediate surgery after delivery. Congenital heart defects (CHD) are some of the most common types of birth defects, but as medical care and treatment have advanced many of the babies that suffer from them usually end up living long and healthy lives. Treatment isn’t required while babies are in their mother’s womb, because the circulation of the heart is different before the baby takes its first breaths, and there is normally a mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. CHD can be mild, like a hole in the heart between two chambers that allows the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Ventricular septal defects and atrial septal defects (holes in the heart) are some of the most common forms of CHD. Sometimes these defects can be resolved on their own or may not be realized until much later in life, or they may require a “patch” repair if they are larger. VSDs and ASDs are associated with Down’s Syndrome, and maternal risk factors including diabetes, obesity, and smoking. Patent foramen ovale (a hole in the heart that fails to close) is found in up to 30% of the general population. It usually requires no treatment and isn’t discovered unless complications like a stroke occur later in life by having a blood clot form, requiring the blood to then travel through the hole, and then be shot up through the aorta into the brain. All babies are born with patent (open) ductus arteriosus – the ductus arteriosus is a fetal blood vessel that allows flow from the right heart to the aorta, necessary when the baby is in their mother’s womb, but incompatible for life after the baby is born. Within the first few days of life, this blood vessel should close and eventually transform into a ligament that helps tether the pulmonary artery and aorta to each other. If closure fails and the ductus arteriosus remains patent, a continuous machine-like murmur can be heard with a stethoscope, and treatment with indomethacin is started. Untreated, a PDA would result in cyanosis (blue/gray skin) and Eisenmenger Syndrome due to decreased oxygen delivery [1].

The heart’s responsibility is not only to provide oxygenated blood to the rest of the body but to also somehow feed itself. The heart’s muscles exhaust 11.6% of the body’s total oxygen consumption in order to maintain its own contractile activity, coming in 3rd after the liver (20.4%) and the brain (18.4%). During contraction or systole, the heart pumps at 120 mm Hg to provide blood through the aorta and arteries. During relaxation, or diastole, the heart expands and allows for blood to fill into its chambers and also flow through the coronary arteries. These coronary arteries are the arteries that will feed the heart itself. Thus, in order to feed itself the heart must relax and therefore allow its coronary arteries to expand and provide blood to itself. When the heart is contracting and providing blood to the rest of the organs it is too constricted to provide blood to itself. Since these branches are located within grooves of the heart, when the heart is systole the arteries are too constricted for blood flow due to increased tension. This is especially true regarding the arteries supplying the left ventricle since it is larger and more muscular – remember this is where the aorta will branch off, providing oxygenated blood to the rest of our body.

This balance between contraction and expansion may remind some readers of the concepts of Qabd (contraction) and Bast (expansion) in Sufism or Tzimtzum in Jewish mysticism, and how one truly feeds the other thus allowing for growth through this cycle of contraction and relaxation. Tzimtzum is used to explain the process of creation, a contraction of infinity happening to give birth to a finite universe [2]. The Sufi tradition is a personal journey described as “contraction and openness are mysterious ‘bargains’ that have been made without the will or intention of the traveler. The first one blocks his or her way; the second one gives him or her wings to fly to new heights [3].” What is perhaps most interesting is that our physical heart performs this contraction and expansion perfectly so long as we take care of it, whereas our spiritual heart can have lapses in this critical exercise. Maybe, if we understand how to take care of our physical heart, we will also find the answer to keeping our spiritual heart healthy. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, emphasizes this connection as follows: “Verily, in the body is a piece of flesh which, if sound, the entire body is sound, and if corrupt, the entire body is corrupt. Truly, it is the heart.”

Some ways to take care of our physical hearts include incorporating more physical activity into our daily lives, eating less and healthy, and controlling our stress. Perhaps our spiritual health would also benefit from these and similar activities, including regular acts of worship, fasting, controlling our temper, and being kind to others. When we don’t take care of our physical heart, it begins to fail since oxygen ceases to be delivered to our heart and the electrical currents can no longer travel effectively, thus resulting in a heart attack.

Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and especially in developed countries. The deadliest heart attack occurs if there is a blockage of the left anterior descending coronary artery, which is why it is tragically termed the “widow maker.” Beginning from adolescence, arteries begin to accumulate fatty streaks and progress to an atherosclerotic plaque. This plaque can lead to several disastrous complications such as follows:

• a narrowing or complete obstruction of an artery, impairing blood flow and leaving the heart thirsty for oxygen
• a stroke due to a blood clot caused by decreased movement, breaking off and flowing to the brain
• a weakening of the vessel wall leading to an aneurysm, the vessel bursting

For some patients, a heart attack becomes a wakeup call in order to make the many necessary lifestyle changes that are necessary in order to live a long and healthy life. However, 20% of patients will experience a second heart attack. As the heart gets weaker and weaker it can eventually develop cardiorenal syndrome, a complication that results from the heart being unable to pump effectively resulting in it getting backed up in the heart and the right side of the body. This increase in volume in the body is further exacerbated by the kidneys, which continue to retain fluids and thus cause the body to become overloaded. This leads to edema, or swelling, in the legs that can eventually progress to the lungs and cause congestive heart failure. As the kidneys try to ameliorate the fact that the heart is not pumping effectively, they ultimately worsen the situation leading to end-stage renal disease and stage D heart failure.

Of course, as with almost all medical conditions, these fatal results can be prevented much earlier with lifestyle changes, even before introducing medical intervention with prescription drugs or other procedures. These lifestyle modifications include moderate aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week, a diet rich in vegetables and low in fats, sugars, and carbohydrates, smoking and alcohol cessation, and weight reduction (which would come as a result of these modifications). It is also important for patients that are already dealing with hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia should keep them well-managed and controlled.

Maybe similarly, some simple lifestyle changes, such as putting aside a few minutes every day to reflect, can be the secret to keeping our spiritual heart healthy. Our heart must remain healthy to keep the rest of our body healthy. Considering the close relationship between our physical and spiritual heart, our spiritual heart must be kept healthy to keep the rest of our spiritual body healthy. Spiritually healthy individuals will further reinforce the health of our community, for Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says, “The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever.”

“As the whole of existence is in His grasp and at His free disposal, it is He Who directs and disposes of all things, from the heavens to the human heart… When God wills, He contracts a heart so tightly for what only He can provide that only He can satisfy it. By contrast, He expands and exhilarates it to such an extent that it needs nothing. Contraction is caused by God’s Majesty; openness is caused by His Grace. (Fethullah Gülen, Emerald Hills of the Heart).”

References

• https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/congenital-heart-defects
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isaac-ben-Solomon-Luria#ref163236
• http://fgulen.com/en/fethullah-gulens-works/key-concepts-in-the-practice-of-sufism-1/qabd-and-bast-contraction-and-openness

Fear and hope or expectation are deliberate attitudes, and are a first station for a traveler on the way to God. Contraction and openness are mysterious “bargains” that have been made without the will or intention of the traveler. The first one blocks his or her way; the second one gives him or her wings to fly to the heights. If fear and hope represent anxiety about and the joy of expectations for the future, as well as liked and disliked things, contraction and openness can be regarded as the heart’s contracting with gloom and depression and expanding with joy.

Contraction and openness have the same meaning for travelers on the slopes of knowledge of God as do fear and hope or expectation for the newly initiated. Both are in the hands of God, even if we cannot exclude from them part of one’s free will: God contracts and expands (2:245). As the whole of existence is in His grasp and at His free disposal, it is He Who directs and disposes of all things, from the heavens to the human heart. The Prophetic saying: The heart is between the two ‘Fingers’ of the All-Merciful; He turns it from state to state and gives it whatever form He wills reminds us of this fact. When God wills, He contracts a heart so tightly that only He can provide what will satisfy it. By contrast, He expands and exhilarates it to such an extent that it needs nothing. Contraction is caused by God’s Majesty; openness is caused by His Grace. While the Grandeur and Magnificence relating to the manifestation by God of His Names on the whole of existence are displayed in the former, Mercy and Condescension are manifested in the latter. In the former, there is the frightening, awesome, and majestic nature of the Power that turns all existence from huge systems into particles, while in the latter there are affectionate breezes for those spirits trembling in awe at this infinitely vast, overwhelming Power, this overpowering Majesty.

Not everyone can feel such manifestations of Majesty and Grace at the same level, for the extent of contraction and openness is proportionate to one’s emotional and spiritual capacity. What an ordinary person feels as distress and relief or rejoicing differs markedly from the spiritual joy and anxiety experienced by one awakened to the Divine truths, one who is ever-alert for what will come through the half-opened door from the realms beyond, and who is conscious of God’s continuous and direct supervision.

Like every element of existence, contraction and openness are at the disposal of the Creator, Who alternates them continuously, like night and day. Even if this alternation appears to originate in the deeds performed in accordance with one’s free will, the Divine Will extends or shortens the periods of contraction and openness, and causes one to be consumed with tension or to overflow with delight. Sometimes a lover experiences openness for a long time, feeling as if flying like a bird, without being touched by any form of contraction; other times, contraction is a constant companion that stays so long that the lover feels that he or she is going from one hardship to another (and greater) hardship.

As neglecting the requirements of one’s spiritual position bestowed by God causes contraction, sins usually come together with contraction. For this reason, a believer must always be alert against committing new sins and deviations while suffering contraction, must not be overpowered by heedlessness, and must strive for self-purification through sincere repentance and the performance of good deeds. Then, the believer must wait for what will come from the realms beyond. While contraction is accompanied by fear, perplexity, and feelings of spiritual emptiness, openness manifests itself as joy, rapture, and feelings or utterances of pride. For this reason, openness may be risky for those spiritually less-developed people who have not yet attuned themselves to journeying in “celestial” realms.

Although there are risks associated with contraction, those associated with openness are greater and more numerous. One caught in contraction usually feels in his or her conscience an absolute need of the Almighty, and so turns to Him in sincere acknowledgment of this neediness with the words: Hold me! Hold me, lest I should fall! and, escaping the spiritual waste he or she feels, is favored with the Almighty’s help and reaches those heights that are beyond reach during times of openness.

This is why some people are exposed to heedlessness and loss of spiritual energy during times of openness, and why contraction leads almost every believer to new levels of alertness. In addition, the contraction originating from our sins or neglect usually signals the beginning of a new wave of openness; similarly, an expansion that causes pride and loss of spiritual energy may give rise to a new contraction.

A true believer is one who can judge each state experienced or achieved as it really is, with all of its aspects, and make it fruitful.

Contraction and openness are manifestations from Him for one who knows.
He causes openness so that the servant will thank Him,
and causes contraction so that the servant may become more alert.

O God! Open our breasts for Islam and establish our hearts
on belief. And bestow blessing and peace on our master
Muhammad, and on his Family and Companions, great and illustrious.

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?

Indeed, the world has once again stepped into a zone of spiritual crisis—and this in itself is a historical recurrence. Before delving into the details of the topic, it would be more useful to expound on the meaning and nature of historical recurrences.

Yes, history is filled with recurrences. These recurrences are not identical to the past, but show some form of resemblance. If they had been identical, then lessons would have been learned and the same mistakes would not have been made. Thus we need to approach history not hoping to arrive at decisive conclusions, as if it would recur identically, but rather to draw wisdom from it, for we will encounter events that will resemble similar moments in the past. Let us now try and view our current crisis from this perspective.

It has often been observed that the periods in history when God burdened and pressured people the most have inspired humanity to sail towards new horizons. This is the case for individuals as well as communities. That is, just as when an individual’s burdens reaching their zenith indicates the moment of salvation is near, excessive social burdens have always refined the community and guided them in new directions. The following saintly words on the night’s darkness reflect what we are trying to say here: “Get as dark as you can. For the last phase of darkness is the moment light begins to shine forth.”

Furthermore, the macro-universe and the human being (the eminent sultan of the normo-universe) are so similar that they are almost identical. Due to this fact, let us start the discussion with the individual, by way of comparison. The relief and contentment experienced by individuals are sometimes followed by spiritual and conscientious expansions. In some other instances, the opposite may happen. Contraction, or qabdh in Islamic Sufi terminology, means being pressed or put under pressure. The handle of the sword that is interlocked with fingers and pressed is also called “qabdha.” Qabdh can also be defined as being held extremely tightly by an unknown hand. This term, indeed, has been added to Sufi terminology with this particular connotation.

The state of contraction may sometimes originate from certain individual sins, or from individual heedlessness. At first, a person unleashes himself into an effervescent climate, and lives, for some time, in a light-headed state. Immediately after, as a form of punishment, a person becomes exposed to contraction. Maybe, it is the soul that wishes to experience this state, for the redundancy of comfort and lethargy annoys the soul. Consequently, the soul often gets annoyed by the exuberance of the material world, because it wishes to be, and to stay, in a state of spiritual alertness and vibrancy regarding its longing for eternity.

In this regard, contraction results when a person lets go of himself, and is consequently cautioned by the Hand of Power. God exposes a person to contraction in order for that person to re-direct themself to Him. This is very similar to when a mother lightly slaps her child to prevent her baby from doing something wrong, or going somewhere bad, and then embraces her baby mercifully and lovingly.

In such a state, roads narrow and do not give way; causes gradually start to vanish. Here, just at this moment, one removes all causes from his memory and directs himself to the One who holds all causes in His Mighty Hand. Essentially, the aim of the Almighty is to direct a person to Himself. In these cases, if a person comprehends the real cause of what befell him, and returns to the Almighty, it means that the goal has been achieved. However, reaching this point requires an astute consciousness and perception to comprehend the fact that no single incident in the universe occurs due to blind or arbitrary coincidence. In his commentary on the Qur’an, Nursi portrays the position of two people who have fallen into a well in light of the current issue: One of the two is deprived of his ability to inquire about the hidden aspect of matters. The other person is a man of wisdom. And through the window of wisdom, this second man speaks to himself as follows (Eighth Word):

“These matters do not actually seem to be coincidental. A lion suddenly starts chasing me while I have been running in the desert; then I fall into a well and hold a tree; two mice, a black one and a white one, on the root of the tree have been gnawing at the tree; and, a dragon down below has been waiting for the moment of my fall, with a mouth wide open. Up above, the lion threatens me with his scary behavior. Standing shoulder to shoulder, these incidents can in no way take place coincidentally or by chance. Apparently, all these have been preplanned by Someone who knows me; and all these are represented through my existence.”

You see, every person who has experienced the state of contraction should view incidents in a similar way, and say to themselves: “all these incidents embracing me so tightly are directed by a superior might exceeding myself, and I am a mere extra in this play.” Of course, this should not be considered sufficient, and right away, one should take refuge in the sovereignty of the One who holds the entirety of existence in His Holy Hand.

This situation is valid for communities, too. A community is sometimes held and pressed by an iron claw, and this can be said to be that community’s contraction . Reasons for such contraction include living in idleness, being unaware of their return to Him, knocking on the wrong doors, or seeking cures in the wrong places.

Today, we can see, through the contraction of individuals and communities, that history repeats itself. This repetition has shown that troubles and turmoil can mark the beginnings of new exaltations. The crisis we are experiencing today shall become a bridge to new energy and exuberance. Indeed, is it not our mission to prepare a new era of exaltation for humanity?

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.

Dear Peter! I, your muscular system, would like to talk to you today; I allow you to walk and do all kinds of movements very easily. In the most recent essay of this department, the skeletal system, which works together with me, discussed how it protected your body and enabled you to stand straight and firm. Sure, this is true. However, as you know, huge rocks and trees can stand straight, too; but they do not have what you do-the ability to move. They are rigid and inflexible because they do not have a system that allows them to move.

You on the other hand, as the most splendid creation in the entire universe, have mobility. All animals have mobility at different levels, thanks to the muscular tissues, which work dynamically behind all the moving organs. However, you, human beings are like neither the animals nor the plants. You have not been created to live like a tree that is pegged down in earth or like an animal that unconsciously tries to meet only its biological needs. Our Designer, God, has made you and your descendants the most important of all creation. He has given you qualities that help you to discover the world, learn, invent and establish new civilizations. To realize such potential and to carry out such duties, you need to first have the freedom to make changes in your small immediate world, which can only be done through motion. In order to enable you with this ability to move, my Creator has put me at your service. I am a system that comprises hundreds of muscles and millions of packed cells.

My most important feature is the cells that move by burning sugar, like a motor consuming fuel in order to work. My cells can shorten and lengthen thanks to the intracellular fibrils (myofilaments) that contract and expand. As a result of each contraction, I pull the bone or the organ that I am attached to and cause it to move or change shape. With the exception of your heart, your bones and organs cannot move on their own. Their ability to move depends on the nature of the muscle they are attached to.

Indeed, I can be called both an organ and a form of tissue. I can use my contraction ability not only as muscle tissue, but also as an organ and a system which runs throughout your body. That is the reason why I appear in so many different types and shapes of muscle bundles. Let me give you an example to help you better understand what a muscle consists of: Let us imagine that a thin thread is like a basic muscular cell. Let us now bring together a great number of threads and make string out of them. Then, let us bring together those strings and make a clothes line. Next, let us bring together a great number of clothes lines and make a very thick rope. Now, imagine this thick rope as a muscle and an organ. Yet, this example is too basic compared to the sophisticated muscle.

Very thin cotton fibrils make up the thin threads. In the muscle fiber, like those cotton fibrils, there are two filaments formed by the two types of protein molecules called actin and myosin, which help in the contraction function. Those little filaments are placed facing one another and they slide past each other during the contraction, which causes the muscle fibers to shorten. That is how the contraction and relaxation of a muscle occurs.

Peter, do you think that coincidence plays a role in this complex and wonderful mechanism and the incredible structure which I have attempted to simplify with an example? Not even a simple thread can be produced without a thread-maker or a machine. Each of your muscles comprises billions of fibers, wrapped all around your bones and giving shape to your body. Can such a complex and delicately intricate structure exist on its own and be positioned in the best place it could possibly be?

My muscles consist of bundles that are made of thousands of muscle fibrils; the size and shape of each muscle depends on which bone it is attached to and what function it does. For example, the muscles that move the bones in your arms and legs are long and spindle-shaped; whereas the ones that are attached to your body can be circular, or triangular, or spread over a broad area. Whatever shape they have, the red skeletal muscles, which are attached to your bones, are very strong and they are voluntary muscles, which mean you can control their movement. When you walk, run, do something with your hands, lie down or stand up, you always use my red striated muscles. The strias (stripes) can only be seen under a microscope because of the histological structure of these skeletal muscles that make up a great part of your body.

My smooth muscles are involuntary muscles that work without your control. Their movements are slow and their contractions last longer, which is the reason why they do not tire easily. The smooth muscles lie in the walls of digestive system, blood vessels, and urinary tract, but I will not talk much about them since each system has referred to the smooth muscles within itself and in detail in previous talks. Because they are not attached to your skeleton to work, the smooth muscles do not play a role in your movements, such as walking around; they only work for the movements of your inner organs.

The third type of muscle belongs to your heart (cardiac muscle) and although the heart has a little striated muscle tissue, it, too works involuntarily. Therefore, you should be aware of the fact that it is the striated muscles which work for the movement of the skeleton and do the major job, and that it is this that we refer to when we say “muscle.”

A great number of bones have been created in order to support your body, and joints have been placed between those bones for them to take the proper shape according to every movement. However, none of those joints have the ability to move by itself. A door or a window, no matter how good it is, cannot be opened or closed without an outside force to pull or push it. In the same way, a joint needs a force to move it and that force is produced by your muscular system. There are around 340 muscles included in your muscular system. It has been estimated that all the muscles in your body perform 510 different functions! While some of those functions are bone movements in your joints, other muscles can perform movements without moving a bone at all. Muscles that are placed in your forehead, face, eye lids and abdomen are those kinds of muscles. They can help you look worried by wrinkling your forehead or grimacing when you are disgusted by something.

Keeping with tradition, the muscles that are included in my system have been named based on the function they perform. For example, the muscle which moves an organ part towards another part is called an abductor, while the muscle that straightens a joint is an extensor, and the muscle that bends a joint is a flexor; the muscle that raises a part of the skeleton is a levator, that which the muscle makes a part of an organ prone is a pronator, the muscle that rotates a part of an organ is a rotator and that which brings an organ into a supine position is called a supinator.

In order for you to make all the movements that your body needs, my muscle components have to be both very strong and flexible. The most important feature of my muscle components is that they can be trained and strengthened with a systematic workout. The main goal of all sportsmen who compete is to increase the strength and the endurance of their muscles. As a result of intense exercises with weight and speed, the number, the diameter and the length of my muscle fibers will increase. Thus, I can gain more power to be able to do more work and also gain the ability to contract faster.

However, in addition to all this training and exercise, genetic factors also play a role in my health. For this reason, not everybody who works out can become a good sportsman; but if the person has innate muscular and skeletal capacity, with good exercise this capacity can certainly be enhanced and developed. However, if a person does not have the proper muscular structure for a particular sport, it would be unfair to expect them to be a champion! Although my muscles always seem to be of the same type at first sight, I might show different behavior depending on the distribution of the special fibers inside them. Some of my fibers twitch fast and tire easily, some of them twitch slowly and tire later. Depending on the distribution of these different fibers, the movements and sport that every person can do differ from person to person. In this case, an athlete who can run only 100m and an athlete who can run 10,000m do not have the same development of muscles; they have different amounts and distributions of special muscle fibers.

The contraction of any of my muscles can occur in two different ways: If the pressure put on my muscle is stronger than the resistance of the tissue, the tension remains constant and the muscle shortens. This is called an isotonic contraction. If the pressure put on my muscle is equal to the resistance, the tension of my muscle increases and its length does not change. That is called an isometric contraction. The amount of force that occurs during the contraction of my muscle depends on its length and the amount of the stimulus.

In order to produce muscle contraction, an electrical signal is sent through a motor neuron to the synaptic gap, which is positioned between the muscle cell membrane and the nerve cell. As a result, a chemical reaction occurs, which, in a very short time, causes the actin and myosin proteins in the muscle fibril to slide past each other and thus shorten the fibril, contracting the muscular cells. During this reaction, the temperature also rises a little and the total heat generated by all the muscles determines your body temperature. For this reason, in cold weather, my muscles vibrate, increasing your body temperature and trying to maintain it. You may now understand why moving the parts of the body in cold weather helps people avoid from getting sick or freezing. As you can see, every act of my Creator is quite purposeful. He can create two or even more functions within one task: Through your muscles, He not only provides you with the ability to move freely, but heat is also produced and you are protected from getting cold.

When a muscle fiber contracts frequently as a result of successive electrical impulses from a nerve fiber, it becomes tired after a while and needs rest. In this case, other muscle fibers which have not contracted for a while will take over and continue the job. However, if the electrical impulses from the nerve come too frequently and my muscle fibers do not have an opportunity to rest, a condition of constant contraction, which is known as physiologic tetanus, occurs.

The tension receptors that are placed on my muscles help maintain the harmony and coordination of all your movements including walking and running, bouncing and sitting down. They do this by constantly signaling the nerve system and providing feedback about the condition of my muscles, and about the speed and the intensity of contraction. Thus, through these receptors which control and coordinate my muscle activities, the well-being of my system is ensured. It is this that prevents you from wobbling when you walk, or helps you to take a spoonful of soup to your mouth without spilling it.

Like any other tissue or system, I, too, have some special disorders. The most common disorders are: weakness, malformation, muscles that develop and move involuntarily and habitually, especially in your face (tic), infected muscles (myosite), muscle dystrophy, muscle rigidity (the Stiffman Syndrome), benign or malignant muscle tumors (leiomyom, rhabdomyoma, or Rhabdomyosarcoma). These disorders differ in their degree of severity and risk.

Dear Peter! You have now seen that each muscle helps your organs to move, holding your bones and giving shape and function to your body, making you a beautiful model and an inspiration for sculptors. You may have understood that this is a work of knowledge and might; there is no way that the myofibril in my one cell could form by itself as a result of a coincidence.

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.