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.