Childrens Book on Islam [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Learning about Allah from a
Science Book

When I arrived home from school one day, my
mother asked me what lesson I had that afternoon.

I
told her that it was a science lesson, pertaining
to the
digestion of food.

The teacher asked us if we
knew
about the gullet, the stomach and the intestines,
and
also if we knew how the digestion of food takes
place.

Since none of us really knew about these things,
the
teacher told us to find out all about them for
tomorrow's lesson.

Hearing this my mother told me to take out the
science book, and she took a large book from
her
bookshelf.

It had many diagrams.

Then we sat
down
to study these things together.

She pointed to one of the diagrams.

"Do you see
this bag-like thing here?", she asked.

"The food
we
eat all goes into that bag.

It's called the stomach.

Do
you see how the food gets into stomach?"
I looked closely at the diagram.

"It must go
through
this pipe".

I said.

"That's right", said the mother.

"Its name is
the
gullet and it connects the throat to the stomach.

And
this pipe connects the throat to the lungs."

I looked at the diagram.

The mother said: "When
we breathe the air it goes to the lungs through
this
passage; do you know its name ?"
"It's called the windpipe", I said.

"That's right", said the mother.

"This pipe,
is for
the passage of food, and this pipe is for the
passage
of air."

I then asked a question, "What would happen if
food went down the windpipe?"
Simple, my mother said: "We would suffocate and
die."

"So how come I'm not dead," I replied.

'I never
knew that food mustn't go down the windpipe'.

"Ah", said my mother.

The story of how we swallow
food is amazing.

Look at this diagram.

See, the
throat
has four passages.

One passage leads to the nose,
one
to the mouth, one to the lungs and one to the
stomach.

When we want to swallow food, only the passage
to
the stomach must be open, otherwise the food
would
get stuck in our windpipe and we wouldn't be
able to
breathe.

Therefore, our body has been provided
with
two little flaps that enable US to breathe.

One
of these
shuts the windpipe, the other shuts the passage
to the
nose.

The one that shuts the windpipe is called
the
epiglottis and the one that shuts the passage
to the
nose is called the uvula.

We are entirely dependent on these two flaps.

With
out them, we would suffocate with our first mouthful
of food.

I'm glad I have them too.

I said, or else by
now I
would have been dead.

Then my mother said.

"Do you think that these
two
flaps came into existence just by themselves?"
I thought about it for a moment, and then the
answer
became perfectly clear, and I told my mother;
"No,
since both of them have a special job to do they
couldn't
have just developed by chance.

It is obvious
that a
wise being has created them for us."

"Well done", said my mother, "You are exactly
right".

Allah created us and knew everything
that we
would need, just as He knows everything.

He knew
that we would need the epiglottis, for we must
both
eat and breathe at the same time; and He knew
that
the food must not enter the windpipe.

So He created
the epiglottis for us, and now, whenever we wish
to
swallow a mouthful of food, the epiglottis does
its work
and automatically closes so the food stays out
of the
windpipe.

We have been created by Allah, the All-knowing
and the All-powerful.

He foresaw all the things
that
we would be in need of, and He created them for
us.

Let us look at another example.

In the stomach
wall-which is a kind of lining in the stomach-Allah
created thousands of glands.

Each of these glands
secretes a special liquid onto the food we eat,
and
this liquid makes the food easier to digest.

He also
created the intestines, and when the food leaves
the
stomach it enters these intestines, and there
the food
enters the next stage of digestion.

He created
for us
two organs called the gall-bladder and the pancreas,
and while the food is in the intestines, these
secrete
some chemicals which make it easier to digest
the food.

"In the wall of the intestines He created thousands
of tiny glands which again secrete fluids as
part of the
process of digestion.

Finally, when the food
is perfectly
digested, the intestinal wall picks out its essential
ingredients, and these are picked up by the blood
stream
and circulated all round the body.

So you see, my dear, this well-ordered and well-planned
system of digestion has obviously not come
into existence at random.

No, indeed, Allah our Wise
and Merciful Lord thought of it and created it
for our
benefit.

By eating our food we gain strength and energy
which enables us to stay alive.

Allah has bestowed
this
strength and energy partly through the food we
eat
and partly through the digestive system by which
we
digest it, and in gratitude to Him we use this
strength
in obedience to Him.

We accept His commands,
we
refrain from !ins and crimes, bad manners and
morals,
and we try to make Allah pleased with us and
grant
us more blessings in this world and in the Hereafter.

Here is a diagram of the intricate and orderly
digestive
system that Allah knew we would need and created
for us.

Is it possible that such a well-planned
system
could have come into being by chance?
Write down the names of the parts of the digestive
system alongside the lines.