The Creator of the universe, the eternal power of existence who has constant awareness of the activity of every cell in our bodies, has endowed us with many fascinating characteristics in the features of our diet and process of reproduction to enable us to live within the ecological stability and principles of adaptation in our natural environment. I will try to explain some of these features to the best of my ability to give you a brief but significant idea of our unique and amazing creation.

Unlike humans, for whom the total development of the fetus and organs takes around 280 days in the womb, we remain in our mother’s womb for a much shorter period. Following a 34–36 day pregnancy, we are born into the world around the size of a bean, blind and earless. As soon as our mothers give birth to us, we crawl by divine inspiration into a pouch created for our protection and development on our mother’s belly. This pouch is why you define both us and kangaroos among the animal kingdom as marsupials. If we did not climb into the pouch created for us to complete the process of our development, we would not be able to live for the first five months of our lives. We feed by sucking the taps of nourishment, the two teats found within the pouch, for the first five months of our lives without leaving this cozy place of security. After about five months hidden in the pouch, we gradually begin to stick our heads out to learn how to benefit from the other substances God has created for us in the universe. While the younger mothers of our species can give birth every year, the older females only give birth every two years or so.

After the first six months we obtain sustenance from our mothers which contains the bacteria and nutritional weaning supplement our digestive system requires to enable us to make the transition from our mother’s milk to the nutrient which becomes the main provision we depend on for the rest of our lives, eucalyptus leaves. In the eighth month of our lives we become a bit more active and sometimes leave our pouch and ride on our mother’s back but we climb back into our pouch at the first sign of danger. We begin to fend for ourselves and eat the eucalyptus leaves with no help from our mothers a year after our birth. We have our very own eucalyptus tree, sometimes even more than one, and we mark the tree by scratching it with our claws, a kind of signature that defines which of us lives in a certain tree.

It may seem unbelievable to you but we hardly drink any water. This is why our name is said to derive from a word of the Aboriginal language meaning “No drink.” This is mainly due to our diet because our need for water is provided by the eucalyptus leaves we eat, which contain 40–60% water, enough for our bodies. As well as this our digestive system and kidneys have been created with a structure that takes the maximum benefit from the water in eucalyptus leaves and wastes the least possible amount of water. The rate of our metabolism is quite low compared to that of other mammals. This is another factor which greatly reduces the loss of water from our bodies, so we do not have to constantly climb down from the trees we live in to find water.

Those who call us lazy because we sleep a lot, an average of twenty hours a day, unfortunately do not know very much about us. Sleep is necessary for us because fibrous eucalyptus leaves contain very little protein and very few other nutrients. This means they provide us with a low energy diet so we have to optimize our use of this energy. The Creator adapted us so that we sleep for 18–20 hours a day to save energy. So never compare us with those who have the ability or energy to be active but waste their valuable lives in unnecessary actions or idleness.

The high content of aromatic oils and various chemical components of cyanide found in eucalyptus leaves are extremely poisonous to many plant-eating animals but we are an exception. God created us with a unique digestive system because the main ingredient of plants, cellulose, is such a hard substance to digest that we have been created with a caecum, a section of intestine much longer (200cm) than that of other mammals, which acts as a chamber of fermentation. Here the high-cellulose eucalyptus leaves are easily broken down by bacteria and microorganisms living in our caecum, a process which then enables our digestion of the leaves. Some of the harmful oils and components (phenol compounds) in the leaves are refined by our liver, which works in an excellent manner, and then these oils are excreted from our body. The creation of our liver, which acts like a special laboratory that can even transform the most dangerous of poisons into harmless substances, has been referred to by evolutionists ludicrously as “a coincidence” or “unaware mutation.”

There are certain things that we must be wary of in our diet. Out of around six hundred different kinds of leaves we can only eat twenty of them, so from around nine kilos of leaves that we pick every day, we only eat one kilo of the least poisonous ones. We usually choose the fresher leaves, and we detect the amount of poison in each leaf by its odor. This is why our noses are one of the most sensitive organs of our bodies. Sometimes we eat earth to obtain the minerals lacking in our bodies. This sharpens our teeth at the same time.

God Almighty, who created even the smallest detail of the universe perfectly, also created our bodies to meet our every requirement. The All-Knowing Designer of the universe created us with arms and paws so we can easily climb up into the eucalyptus trees we use as our homes, our places of habitat. The soles of our paws that are covered in a thick skin, and our arms and legs, which are equipped with strong muscles, and our hook shaped claws enable us to grip onto the trunk and branches of the tree. We can even sleep while we are hanging from a branch. We have five claws on each of our front paws and two of these claws are placed like the thumbs on your hands. These claws enable us to grip and keep a hold on branches. The second and third claws on our hind paws are joined together to enable a stronger grip. We can grip with all four of our paws just like a human grasps with his or her hand and this helps us to walk up the branches and move around in the tree with great ease.

Our body temperature is perfectly adjusted for outdoor life, and our rainproof fur also protects us from the cold, heat and wind. Our fur changes and adapts every season in length and thickness according to our temperature requirements, Australia is situated in the southern hemisphere, so those of us who live in the south have been created with a longer more bristly fur than those in the north so we can cope with the harsh winter conditions. Our fur has patches of different colors on different parts of our bodies; the darker fur on our backs has been created to absorb and preserve heat while the fur on other parts of our bodies is relatively light in color.

To protect ourselves from strong winds we roll our ears up into a kind of ball and turn our backs, the most insulated part of our bodies towards the wind. The fur on our backs is as protective as that of the animals that live in the Arctic. If you see us curled up on a branch in the winter, don’t worry. Due to our incredible fur coat we are as warm and comfortable as you are in your homes.

Unfortunately, we have been subjected to the never-ending desires and ambitions of humankind. The dingoes, iguanas, and some of the eagles and owls that live in Australia do cause us harm from time to time but the massacre inflicted on us by humans in the nineteenth century was heartless and barbaric. Especially from about 1910 to the 1930s my ancestors were killed for our fur and around 80% of our main source of nutrition was destroyed by cutting down eucalyptus trees. In 1927 our species was subjected to the largest massacre ever. They say that over two and a half million of my brothers and sisters were barbarically killed then. It is reported that there are between two and eight thousand of us living today, and the drop in our population is mainly due to agriculture, urbanization and the destruction of the trees we depend on for our habit and nutrition. There has been a huge increase in deaths among us from contagious diseases and attacks by domestic animals like dogs. In recent years, all praise to our merciful Creator, by the great efforts of some foundations and organizations we have been placed under a conservation order.

This description of our exceptional organs, our behavior we are inspired to adopt, and the many blessings bestowed upon us must have explained to you and enlightened you about certain things. May the greetings of the Almighty, He who created us with a liver to enable us to cope with the poisonous leaves, who enables us to feed our offspring in the security of the pouch on our bellies, who created everything in the universe in total cooperation and harmony with each other, be upon you all…

Our Creator has solved every potential problem which living things might experience by creating one optimal solution among every alternative.These perfect solutions open new horizons for men, and they also act as guides in the development of science and technology. The book titled “Engineering in Nature” details many striking examples.1

In recent research, it has been discovered how the thread of a spider can contribute to fiber-optic technology. A crucial challenge in photonic technology is to produce the tiny optic fiber that is used as a conductor for a light beam in nano-scaled optic circuits. Yushan Yan, of the University of California in Riverside, has taken an important step forward in this technology by covering the thread from a spider web with a glass-like material and then removing the thread after the material has hardened. By utilizing this technique, it is possible to produce threads that are 1/50000th the diameter of human hair and that have a radius of 2 nanometers (1 nanometer being one billionth of a meter).

Not only will this discovery be applicable in photonic technology, it will also increase the resolution in optical microscopes, or, alternatively, these threads could be turned into nanoscale test tubes in a new breed of sensors that can suck up single molecules of a particular chemical.

A research group at the University of California cut a thread 1 centimeter long from the web of the giant spider of Madagascar, the Nepila Madagascariensis, and pasted the two ends of the thread to a card. Then they repeatedly dipped this thread into tetraethyl orthoslicate solution. After this, the thread that had undergone this process was dried and heated to a temperature of 420 Celsius. The string decreased by one fifth of its original radius and the process resulted in the production of tiny tubes with a radius of one micrometer.

There are plans to make use of the web of the Stegodyphus Pasifiu-a spider which uses a thread of a radius of 10 nanometers and which is found in the Middle East and Southern Asia. This will enable scientists to use thinner fibers. After heating, a thread with a radius of 2 nanometers is attained. Until this latest finding, it was only possible to produce fibers with an interior radius of 25 nanometers.

Fiber optic researchers do not hide their enthusiasm for this new simple and cheap technology. It is expected that it will be used in the field of supra-molecular chemistry; that is the study of very miniature environments. In these environments the reaction-speeds increase and completely different reactions occur. For such experiments carbon nano-tubes are being used at the present time. The tubes made from fibers obtained from spider webs will enable scientists to create more sensitive environments. It is also thought that it will be possible to create microscopes with a higher resolution by using tinier fiber optic catheters.

Such microscopes would be used to observe events that are shorter in duration than the wavelength of light, yet at the same time, these microscopes would not cause the sample to be harmed. Electron microscopes harm the sample since the features of the technology used necessitate this. Currently, these microscopes use a scope that has been made from very thin glass tubes. These fibers are relatively thick, measuring about 100 nanometers in radius. Yet, by means of this new technology, these new microscopes can be developed and biologists will have brand new opportunities to study events that have not been visible before. Surely, it is not possible to say that the immaculate biological structure and incredibly small thread employed by the spider can be explained by simply putting its creation down to chance or by stating that it is a product of nature.

These perfect examples that can be observed in nature will lead to fundamental changes in our understanding of the universe; they will enable great leaps in terms of making our life more comfortable and, most importantly, they will be helpful in realizing how the Divine Power and Art can be present together and be in harmony.

References 

• M. Sami Polatoz, Tabiatta Muhendislik [Engineering in Nature], Kaynak, Istanbul: 2003.
• Danny Penman, Spiders Weave a Web of Light, New Scientist,
• 22 March 2003, p. 20.

The young, having been deprived of all traditional values, were crushed by the pressures of materialism. They showed no signs of purity or profundity of mind, nor depth of feeling, nor spirituality. Such a thing was not at all unexpected given that the experience and traditions cultivated over a thousand years had been sacrificed to an adulterated, cosmopolitan culture.

The most painful and heart-rending aspect of the situation is that the intelligentsia, those who were expected to guide the community, readily adapted to the new low standards. It is difficult for us to comprehend how they could prefer an adulterated culture to the traditional one so subtly formed over the centuries.

In just such conditions our young confronted the problems of coming to age! They were under great pressures resulting from the neglect of centuries. Their bewildered community had left the traditional ways, and a new force had appeared, but one that, not having suffered pangs of birth, was immature. The poor youth could not decide whom to foIlow. And how could they decide, since they had never been given good examples, and had only seen those who fled from themselves in one way or another.

In a society going astray, which had suffered a serious reverse, some went so far as to consider all ideas and traditions that had elevated their ancestors into a great nation as exhausted values. If only the young who were deprived of all the finer feelings had been able to understand what was happening around them!

That being the situation, what we should do is to uplift a generation who has been turned from their origins, and to inject new life into them.

We have no right merely to complain about them or to criticize them for not reading or thinking. They were until very recently given no help at all, although they would have welcomed such help. We may not deny that some of them show a real desire to do serious researches or to learn. Others express that hunger by reading piles of newspapers or listening to the radio or watching television for hours–to kill time or satisfy trivial desires. Also, although some of them gather around preachers to receive what there is to be received, we have, alas, been unable so far to give them anything worthwhile.

When have we guided the young to do the good and to choose the right? When have we been able to teach them to be virtuous? Do we have the ability to speak to them about a message given to make them think, study and reason? Can we be sure of the altruism of those who claim to lead and guide them to higher levels? How many men are there of stature and high standing that we can look up to, men who have renounced material and spiritual pleasures? They were waiting for a ‘Hercules’ who could say ‘I have known nothing of worldly pleasures in my life of over eighty years’, who would not change his life-style until death. We need to find soldiers of Allah who will take on the sufferings of their generation without even thinking of the pleasures of paradise. Alas, we have yet to find guides who would even give up worldly pleasures for the sake of young.

It is true that we have not been able to help the young. We have not been able to find proper schools for them, nor to teach them the right way to integrate with the universe. They have been ground down by the teeth of events and, inevitably, have stood up in rebellion against those who put them in their state of wretchedness.

As in the picture showing a beheaded Goliath, they stand before those who took away their heads, demanding only the return of their souls. For them, to regain what they have lost is the most important thing.

Who will assume the heavy responsibility of returning to them what they have lost? The home? The society or its educational institutions? Under present circumstances none of these are up to the task, albeit certain individuals deserve to be encouraged. If we fail to provide facilities for the young to enable them to build their own world in accordance with the conditions of the real world, our failure will lead on to their destruction. The present state, notably of our educational institutions, is by no means promising. Neither our system of education, which has been degenerating little by little for centuries, nor our homes which are no more than kitchens and bedrooms, nor the society in general, which has been in chaos, hold out much promise for the young.

The only way out is to develop a new understanding of science and to stimulate determination based on morality and insight, together with the cultivation of godliness. The new generation must be guided by a unity of mind, and take the true path in life, and they must regain their original, true identity. Besides, we must realize that we can only enable the young to reach such heights, and so save them from idleness and indifference, by inspiring them with idealism; by urging them to renounce merry-making in favour of the trials of ‘becoming’; by turning them away from self-indulgence and towards a love of others and of the homeland.

We salute the fortunate ones who will shoulder so heavy a responsibility.