There are similar valves in the discharge part of the large pump. When the large pump contracts, these valves open, and the blood is allowed to flow out to the body. When the beat is finished, however, the valves close to prevent the pumped blood from flowing back to the heart. This is a simple but most reliable precaution, and modern artificial pumps use similar systems.
The existence of just one of these valves is proof that the heart has been specially, consciously created. Leaving aside the heart’s hundreds of miraculous features, and considering only how its valves came into existence reveals to us Allah’s flawless creation. No series of random events could ever create one of the valves in the chambers of the heart, let alone the flawless structure of the heart itself. Every detail of this perfect engine in the human body is proof of the might, power and existence of Allah.
They do not measure Allah with His true measure. Allah is All-Strong, Almighty. (Surat al-Hajj:74)
Oiling the Pump
Consider the machines you are familiar with. Any machine, even a very simple mechanism, produces friction caused by the rubbing together of its components. Unless that friction is eliminated, the parts will soon wear out and the machine will be damaged enough to become inoperable. That means that its working parts need to be lubricated regularly.
The heart, which expands and contracts constantly for your whole lifetime, faces exactly the same risk. It needs a lubrication system in order to maintain its ceaseless functioning. On the outer layer of the heart lies a layer consisting of a two-layered membrane known as the pericardium. The space between these two membranes is filled with a special lubricating fluid— just one of the heart’s perfectly created details.
The Heart’s Armor
The body’s vitally important organs are protected in very different ways. The heart is one of the organs most in need of protection, since any blow to it could lead to lethal consequences. For that reason, your heart is located in the safest place—in your chest, inside the ribcage. The ribs protect the heart from blows from outside, just like the ribs of a ship’s hull.
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| The location of the heart in the chest cavity. A) The heart’s links to the breastbone and ribs. B) Cross-section along the heart in the chest cavity. C) Connections between large blood vessels in the lungs and the heart. |
How Is the Heart Nourished?
The tissues of the heart muscle are too thick and tight for nutrients and oxygen to pass through them, and are therefore unable to benefit from the blood pumping through it. However, like all other organs, the heart’s cells need blood. In fact, since it is a constantly functioning muscle, the heart needs even more oxygen than any other organ.
This need has, once again, been resolved thanks to a most incomparable creation. The blood arriving from the lungs to the left part of the heart is the cleanest, most oxygen-rich in the body. Two specialized arteries, known as the coronary arteries, emerge from the aortic arteries by which the blood is pumped out to the body. These arteries do not lead to the body, as do all the other arteries, but return to the heart. In this way, the most oxygen-rich blood is thus forwarded directly to the heart, without going anywhere else first.
Another feature can be perceived in the way the coronary arteries are laid out. As these arteries head towards the heart they make intermediate connections with one another, which connections serve as insurance against any one of the arteries becoming blocked. If one of the arteries does suffer an occlusion, the blood courses on through the other artery, by-passes the blocked area and reaches the heart muscle. This same feature is employed by urban planners when laying out networks of water distribution. In order that the city should not be left without water in the event of a fault in one of the existing pipes, this age-old network system of the human heart is copied on a far wider scale.
Even these connections made between the arteries nourishing the heart exhibit such reason and planning as to leave chance as no explanation.
Before moving on to other structural features of the heart, it will be useful to issue a reminder. Just bearing in mind the features described so far, you can see that the heart’s features could never have formed one by one, as evolutionists would have us believe—and furthermore, that all these stages could never have come into existence by chance.
In all regards, the heart exhibits a flawless and complete creation. It is impossible for this organ, or even any one of its components, to have come into existence by itself. In addition, even if we were to assume that such a perfect organ did emerge by itself—no matter how impossible that might be—it would still serve no purpose. Whatever ideal properties a heart might possess, in the absence of a circulatory system and blood to pump, it would have no bodily function. Again according to evolutionist logic, an organ with no function is doomed to become “vestigial” and disappear. But as you have seen, just one single example reveals the major contradictions in evolutionists’ claims.
Your Heart’s Electrical System
If you extract a living heart from the body, it will continue working independently until it has consumed the last of its energy. If provided with the necessary oxygenated blood, the heart will still beat for hours, even if all its nerve connections are severed.
In order to examine this interesting situation, let us briefly review how the muscles work: For a muscle to contract, it first needs a command from the brain or the spinal cord. That command is in reality an electrical signal forwarded by means of the nervous system. Since the heart’s structure is composed entirely of muscle tissue, then a heart that beats some 70 times a minute needs to be electrically stimulated that many times.
Then how can a heart still continue to beat for a while even if all its nerve connections are severed and it is removed from the body? This leads us to ask where these commands to contract come from?
When scientists investigated this question, they encountered something most surprising. In the heart, there is a generator that produces its own electricity—a generator made of flesh, itself one of the components of the very heart it supplies.
An artificial generator goes into action in the event of a cut in the external electrical supply, and continues producing electrical current to prevent machinery from shutting down or being damaged. The heart, one of the most crucial organs in the body, is also similarly protected in order to ensure it is never harmed in the event of any interruption to its energy supply. For the heart to stop even for a moment could lead to grave damage to the brain and the rest of the body, and could even have fatal consequences. The electrical system operating the heart must therefore work without ceasing.
Scientists investigating this electrical system made even more astonishing findings. The heart functions not only with a micro-generator, but also thanks to an assembly of interconnected, programmed and systematic electronic circuits. This electrical management system works together with a number of elements, from the kidneys to the brain, and from the arteries to the hormonal glands.
Of course, this flawless creation in the heart, discovered only very recently by scientists, has been working non-stop for millions of years. Without exception, this system has been present in all the many billions of people who have ever lived, and in all those who will ever live in the future. This is Allah’s flawless creation.
The Heart’s Electronic System
When examined closely, the upper wall of the heart’s right atrium can be seen to contain this generator that supplies electricity to the heart. In an adult at rest, this generator, a knot of tissue known as the sinoatrial (SA) node, emits 72 low-frequency electrical impulses a minute.19 Each of these impulses causes the most perfect pump in the world to contract once.
To better witness the creation in this mechanism, let us now examine one heartbeat, which takes place in less than one second.
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| The energy wave that causes the heart to work is initiated by the S.A. node in the atrium and with the help of the coronary artery, passes to the A.V. node, and from there to the right and left fibers. A special electrical system in the heart allows these processes to take place. The force that permits a piece of tissue to produce electricity belongs to Allah, Who has no partners in His creation. |
The energy wave emitted by the SA node spreads over the tissues that make up the heart’s small pumps (valves). Blood passes from the smaller atria to the large ventricles at the bottom of the heart.
Under normal conditions, however, one would expect the situation to be very different. The energy given off by the SA node, or generator will first stimulate the large pumps. Yet since the electrical wave moves very fast, both pumps will contract at almost the same moment and the heart’s working mechanism should be impaired. Yet such an electrical circuit must be constructed that the electrical energy must first stimulate the small atria, after which it must pause for an instant before stimulating the large ventricles. After the electrical signal has been emitted, it must pause until the small atria have performed their function. The necessary circuit needs to be a marvel of engineering.
In fact, after stimulating the atria, the electrical wave emitted by the generator moves to another tissue mass known as the atrioventricular (AV) node. This tissue holds onto the electrical signal for a very finely regulated interval of time, as short as 1/14th of a second. At the end of that period, the small atrium has finished its task. The electrical signal then continues on its way and stimulates all the ventricle cells in as little as 1/16th of a second. The larger pump, whose turn it now is, thus contracts and blood is pumped out to the body. All these processes take place in less than one second. 20
An Important Security Precaution: The Heart’s Spare Generator
The AV node, which halts the electrical waves emitted by the main generator for a short while, has another very important function. In the event of a problem in the main generator, this node steps in and works like a spare generator. It cannot produce signals as strong as those from the main generator (it produces only 40 to 50 signals a second), built they are still sufficient to let the heart keep working. If the main generator is damaged for any reason, the spare AV node undertakes an absolutely vital task. People have been observed to live for up to 20 years, even though their main generator has failed to function for various reasons. 21
To grasp what we have described so far, the reader needs a certain consciousness and understanding—which you, reading this book, do indeed possess. On close inspection, however, the components constituting the heart must also exhibit consciousness in order to function. For example, the reserve generator needs to be aware of everything that goes on in the human body in order to know when to assume its function, and needs to set the necessary system in motion in the event of any emergency.
Yet how do these components in the various parts of the heart carry out these processes, which we need to have awareness in order to understand? Can the nerve nodes in the heart be considered to have consciousness? Can it be claimed that these nodes calculate the seconds, and perform these calculations non-stop and always totally accurately? On their own, of course, these structures in the heart clearly cannot perform the complex processes necessary for the heart to function. These nodes are merely collections of cells that cannot be regarded as having decision-making mechanisms, will, or calculating ability.
Any cell being able to produce electricity is by itself a great miracle, because such production takes place as a result of thousands of very complex chemical processes. At this point, there are even more questions to be considered:
Why should a cell seek to assume the task of producing electricity? What force obliges it to do this? How does the cell know that the heart needs electrical signals in order to contract, and that the cells that bring about those contractions cannot function without electricity?
In addition, it is not sufficient for just one cell to produce electricity. It needs other cells producing electricity too, and these cells need to combine in the correct order. It is not enough for them to be present together. They must produce electricity together, as if they had signed an agreement to do so. Furthermore, that production needs to take place within a particular rhythm: Each cell has to possess a chronometer, and these cells need to accurately function once every 0.83 of a second. Additionally, the cells must be able to continue with this production tirelessly, for an entire lifetime. They must also know the level of electrical current that causes the heart to function, and must produce just the right amount of electricity—neither too much nor too little.
The untiring muscle cells in the heart must also possess a characteristic allowing them to function when the electrical current arrives. They must respond to every signal reaching them and respond to each one of the signals produced, 72 times every minute.
Since a specific understanding is required in order to grasp the functioning of this miraculous system, it would be irrational and unscientific to claim that it came into being through blind chance. Such a flawless system cannot be explained in terms of coincidences. The fact that such an electrical circuit has been placed inside the human heart is yet another proof that we have been created by Allah.
We created you, so why do you not confirm the truth? Have you thought about the sperm that you ejaculate? Is it you who create it or are We the Creator? We have decreed death for you and We will not be forestalled. (Surat al-Waqi‘a:57-60)
The Heart’s Accelerator and Brake System
The nervous system, the hormonal system and the organs attached to them--parts of the mechanism that regulates the heart’s functioning--all work together in great harmony.
This section shall examine a very special system that regulates the working of the heart. We shall see how a piece of flesh immediately beneath the rib cage receives information, analyzes it and automatically carries out measures that need to be taken.
As a reminder, in examining the structures in the human body or in other living things, the most important thing is to ask whether they could have come into existence by chance. It’s of course impossible to pose this question with every description provided herein. But with this or any other book about the body, you should constantly ask yourself this vital question, because the answer will let you better appreciate the infinite might of your Creator.
Now, let’s examine the heart’s rhythm-controlling system, while keeping the above question.
The heart beats constantly to a regular rhythm. You can compare this to a car on a fixed-speed highway. Under certain conditions, however, the heart’s tempo needs to speed up or slow down. This is analogous pressure being applied to a car’s throttle or the brake pedal. The brake that decelerates the heart’s rhythm is the vagus nerve, and the accelerator that speeds it up is the sympathetic nerves. 22 The hormone acetylcholine sets the brake (or vagus nerve) into action.
The sympathetic nerves are components of the autonomous nervous system that work outside your free will and regulate the working of your internal organs. They raise blood pressure by narrowing the arteries and help form the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine by stimulating the medulla region above the kidney. These hormones increase the heart’s work rate. The hormone thyroxin, secreted by the thyroid, also affects the working of the heart by raising the metabolism.23
So how do these accelerators work? How is the decision to speed up or decelerate taken? Such a regulatory and information exchange system has been constructed within the human body that no artificial information- processing network is nearly as perfect.
That this system functions within your body without your being aware of it, even at this very moment, is evidence that you were created.
Let’s now examine how the controls in question are depressed, and how the decision to accelerate or decelerate is taken—while still asking the necessary questions.
When you perform a movement requiring force, the muscles around the veins accelerate the flow of de-oxygenated blood. This means that more blood goes to the heart and the right atrium. The atrium muscles then contract, and nerve signals formed as a result of that contraction are transmitted via the central nervous system to medulla in the spinal cord, which analyzes these data and immediately sends a command to the heart. The heart’s rhythm is accelerated. This allows more fresh blood to reach the muscles.
A key question: Is it rational and logical that this system could have come into being by chance? People who make such a claim are definitely unable to answer the following questions:
How are those receptors aware that de-oxygenated blood has increased and of the contraction created have been sited in the correct region of the heart, the right atrium where the dirty blood is found?
How did the network that carries the information from these receptors to the spinal cord and the medulla come into being?
How did the spinal cord and medulla—the data-processing center that analyses this data and is able to take the correct decisions—come into existence?
How does the medulla realize that the message reaching it signifies that oxygenated blood has decreased? With what consciousness does the spinal cord decide that the heart must beat faster in order to send more blood through the lungs?
How did the elements comprising this system come together as one and at the same time, exactly?
Such precise order cannot of course have come into being by chance. Not even a single component of this system—let alone the system itself—could have come into existence by happenstance. In addition to proving the invalidity of the theory of evolution, the above questions also clearly demonstrate Allah’s creation.
Let’s now examine another safety system created by Allah, and witness another proof of His creative artistry.
In addition, the heart needs a special safety mechanism to keep it from beating too fast and damaging itself. Inside the aortic artery emerging from the left-hand part of the heart are receptors that measure blood pressure. As the heartbeat rises, so does the pressure of blood reaching the aortic wall. When this pressure exceeds a certain level, the safety mechanism goes into operation. The receptors that detect the increasing pressure send warnings via the spinal cord to the medulla. This analyses the situation and sends a new command to the heart. This slows down the heart rate, and blood pressure is lowered. Let us now reconsider the pressure gauges inside the aorta and the heart’s braking mechanism.
Is it an unconscious coincidence that the heart is aware that too rapid a heartbeat will damage the body and that it should take measures to counteract this?
Did the receptors that measure blood pressure come into being by chance? And were these then located in the right place—in the aortic wall membrane—by also chance?
Did the nerve link between the receptors and the spinal cord come into existence by chance?
How do the receptor cells recognize that blood pressure has risen, and with what consciousness do they transmit news of this rise to the spinal column?
By what criteria does the medulla analyze the data reaching it? With what consciousness does it realize the importance of the situation?
How did some of the spinal cord’s cells come to assume the role of regulating the heartbeat? Why did they assume that responsibility?
How does a spinal cord cell decide to send a command to the heart? How does it know what form the command it sends must take, so that the heart cells can understand it?
Why do the heart cells obey signals from the spinal cord?
These questions are very important for lifting the curtain of familiarity that forms over the course of time and keeps people perceiving the miracles right before their very eyes.
Most people realize that some situations make their hearts beat faster. When you climb quickly up a staircase, run, or becomes excited, you can feel that your heartbeat has increased, and that later, it returns to normal. No one, however, realizes what a great miracle this truly is. They never understand that the rate of their heartbeat is regulated by a computer-like system inside the heart. Even if they are aware of the existence of a system, still they spend little time thinking about how their bodies’ miraculous systems came into existence, and even strongly avoid doing so. Some even believe that thinking too much about such matters is psychologically unhealthy.
The fact is, however, that Allah wishes us to think deeply. He commands people to ponder what He has created and thus, to better understand His might and power and to fear Him more. In one verse of the Qur’an Allah has revealed how believers should behave, how they should think about the entities created by Him—and how their fear of Him should increase as a result:
Those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the Earth: “Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire.” (Surah Al ‘Imran: 191)
Preparation for Fight or Flight
At certain times, the human body needs to be stronger and more resistant, and exhibiting higher performance than normal. When danger is encountered, for instance, an individual must immediately fight or flee.
Under such exceptional circumstances, it’s of course essential that the heart beat faster and pump more blood for the necessary adjustments to be made within the body.
The requisite measures have indeed been taken for such circumstances. In extraordinary situations, the adrenal glands secrete a hormone called adrenalin. This hormone molecule makes a very long journey, in comparison to the length of its own molecule, to reach the heart cells, commanding them to contract faster. (See the Chapter 4 on the hormonal system.) The glands located atop the kidneys which produce this hormone are acquainted with the heart cells and know what chemical language they will understand. At the same time, they possess the knowledge that the body must become more resistant and that therefore, the heart needs to beat faster. The heart cells obey this command and begin beating more quickly, providing the extra oxygen the body requires in urgent situations.
Indispensable Elements in the Functioning of the Heart
This electronic system located in the heart also needs electrical signals if it is to function properly. In order for electrical signals to be produced, the sodium, potassium and calcium ions need to be present in specific quantities in the blood. Since the blood levels of these substances are regulated by such organs as the kidney, intestines, stomach and lungs, it becomes even more apparent the impossibility of this system having come into being through such a fictitious mechanism as evolution.
Now, bearing in mind the features of the heart examined so far, imagine that someone has succeeded in developing a device resembling the heart—a flawless pump capable of working for 70 years without stopping for even a second, one that creates its own electricity, needs no maintenance or parts replaced, and that automatically adjusts its working speed and power thanks to a built-in electrical system. Such success could be achieved, of course, only as the result of technology, technical experience and long study. Nobody can imagine that such a device could come into being by chance. That would be totally irrational.
Nonetheless, to imagine that the heart came about by chance is even more illogical and irrational than thinking that any other product of technology—a television, for example—could come into existence by chance.
First of all, in the heart there is technology a far superior to any man-made device. Most important of all, however, the chance development of the heart is by itself of no significance. In addition to the heart, thousands of kilometers of blood vessels—as well as the blood inside them, the kidneys that filter that blood, the lungs that provide the blood with oxygen and remove the carbon dioxide it carries, the digestive system that provides nutrients for the blood, the liver that refines these nutrients, the nervous system that regulates the functioning of the heart, the brain that manages the body as a whole, the bone system that keeps the body together, the hormonal system that assists the functioning of the heart, and thousands of similar elements—would have to have come into being in a single moment, and again by a single random event. Yet each of these possesses a special creation that leaves absolutely no room for chance. It’s therefore as impossible for the heart to come into being by chance as for any product of technology to do so.
We are looking at a most evident truth here. The heart was created by Allah, together with all the systems and elements that function along with it.
The Blood Vessels
The body is interpenetrated by millions of tubes, both large and small. If this venous network in a single human were spread out in a straight line, it would stretch more than 60,000 miles. 24 The venous system is so perfected that the required connections have been established to everywhere in the body. The tubes never become knotted, never open onto any unnecessary places, possess no dead ends. They extend all over the body and return to their starting point.
For a piping system to be installed in any building, a plan is necessary beforehand. The circulatory system in the human body is of a far greater perfection that any man-made plan.
In addition, the length of the blood vessels in the human body is around 100,000 kilometers (or 60,000 miles), whereas that in an average-size building will be only a few kilometers long. This plumbing, made of special metallic or vinyl compounds, give rise to problems within a few decades. Joints leak, some pipes gradually corrode, and others give rise to leaks inside the walls. All these problems arise even though the building is an immobile structure, and the plumbing never moves.
On the other hand, the capillary network inside a healthy body fulfils its function for an entire lifetime, never requiring maintenance or spare parts. But in addition, the human body is not immobile, but moves, walks, runs, sits and stands. The veins constantly stretch and compress under these actions, but so perfectly created are the veins that no problem ever arises, unless individuals make movements that damage their own health.
The Incomparable Creation in the Human Body
Now consider a human body with no veins, and ask an engineer to draw up plans for placing veins inside that body. That plan must provide all the necessary connections for every cell, from the depths of the liver to the bone marrow, from the eyelids to the kidneys. In addition, depending on the function of every organ, the thickness and properties of every vein must be planned out. Clearly, one engineer could never draft such a blueprint. Even if everyone in the world were to work on it together, the result would still be the same. Neither their life spans nor their intellects would be sufficient to produce the circulatory network. It’s impossible to maintain that a blueprint that billions of people together could not manage to draw up emerged as the result of blind chance. This system leaves no room for chance in even a single stage, clearly revealing that human beings were created by Allah.
The Journey Begins. . .
The chief purpose of the heart-vein system is to transport necessary substances that allow the body’s cells to function, and to carry away waste materials. An adult’s heart pumps 9,000 liters (or 2,380 gallons) of blood a day through a network that is 100,000 kilometers (60,000 miles) in length.25
Now, imagine that you are the size of a cell and set out on a journey through the circulatory system.
Your starting point is the heart’s upper left pump—in other words the left atrium. The area you are in is full of clean, oxygen-rich blood. Around you are millions of oxygen- bearing red blood cells (erythrocytes). Immediately beneath you is a valve leading to the heart’s right atrium. It can open in only one direction—down.
With the sudden contraction of the atrium, the valve cover opens. The blood with you in it begins filling the heart’s lower left ventricle. You are now in the left ventricle, a very powerful pump. The valve now closes behind you to prevent your returning to the atrium where you came from.
The left ventricle is a powerful pump, capable of sending blood to the furthest point in the body. At the exit of this pump is another one-way valve leading to the aortic artery, and its function is similar: to prevent the blood you are in from returning to the heart.
The left ventricle now contracts strongly. This valve opens outwards. The blood carrying you is sent quickly toward the aorta, the largest artery.As you approach the aortic artery wall, you encounter a most interesting structure. As if the artery’s inner wall has been polished, and its smooth and oiled surface reduces friction and allows the blood to flow more easily.
Take a short break in your journey to examine the aorta and the arteries in greater detail.
The Strongest Vein
As you’ve seen, the vessels that carry the blood from the heart are called arteries, and those that carry blood from the tissues to the heart are known as veins. Arteries are generally buried deep within the tissues. In some places, however—for example, in your wrists, temples, neck and ankles—they run much closer to the surface. In these regions, you can feel the passage of arterial blood with every beat of your heart putting pressure on the artery walls.
The artery’s internal surface resembles large numbers of different-shaped paving stones laid out to form a regular surface. However, the “stones” here are cells.
Let us now concentrate. Cells are living things. One group of living cells have been laid out next to one another, exactly as paving slabs are, to create a smooth, regular surface. This surface, curving a full 360 degrees, forms a pipe. The venous system is formed by millions of similar pipes joining together in order.
How did this come about?
First of all the cells, must be flat and of such shapes as to fit tightly against one another. What force, then, created so many billions of cells in this interlocking form?
While the body was still in its mother’s womb, these cells must have been laid out just like paving stones, side by side. Who set out these billions of cells, so smoothly and regularly?
If just one cell is missing from the arterial wall, then blood will leak out from that spot. Who is it, then, who builds this wall so accurately?
“Chance” cannot be the answer to these questions.
Furthermore, it’s not a metal tube from a factory template, that we’re considering here, but rather a living vessel formed by the coming-together of living cells. Why do these tiny living units spend their lives lining a tube? Who set them out in this way and gave them such a responsibility?
Again, the answer to these questions cannot be “Chance”! But evolutionists never think about details of this sort. Rather, they ignore these facts, and are unwilling even to consider them. Evolutionists make speeches and write books about circulatory tissues that include large quantities of Latin terms. Yet they never answer the question of how these cells came together in such supreme order—because the only answer they can supply is “Chance.”
Since they know how demeaning such an invalid response will be, they gloss over the issue with illogical statements like, “These cells came together and formed the veins during the evolutionary process.”
If a scientist offers such an explanation, then people with no great knowledge of scientific literature may think that he must have some scientific facts behind it—though since the scientist has rather glossed over the subject, people won’t be able to understand it.
Nevertheless, evolutionists give no answer as to how the arteries and veins came into existence. There are many thousands of other questions to which they also give no answer. They avoid entering into such discussions and gloss over the subject with unspecific words.
In short, no evolutionist can account for the presence of the circulatory network in the human body, as you can very easily prove for yourself. Tell any evolutionist about the perfection of the veins and arteries, and how the cells are all set out in precise order. Then ask how this structure first came about. The only reply you will receive is, “By chance.”
In fact, however, there is only one true answer to this question; it is Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, Who created the veins, the blood in the veins, the heart that pumps this blood, and all the other countless of systems within the human body.
Flexibility in the Veins
The special creation in the structure of the arteries is not seen only in the flawless sequence of the cells. Immediately outside the layer formed by these cells is another layer of muscular cells that are exceedingly flexible. This is another example of creation. Elastic fibers increase the veins’ resistance to the blood pressure that rises when the heart beats. In addition, the elasticity imparted to the veins allows extra blood to travel through them.
If the heart pumped blood at high pressure through a venous system that was inelastic, then an extra great burden would be placed on the heart, and blood pressure inside the arteries would be very high. All these details are another indication of the incomparable nature of Allah’s creation.
The Journey Continues
As we keep on with our journey, the aortic artery bifurcates and heads in two different directions. The blood flowing upward meets the needs of the brain and arms, and that blood heading downwards fulfills the needs of the rest of the body. Imagine that your journey is proceeding toward the lower part of the body.
On this route, there are a large number of detours leading to the liver, stomach, upper and lower intestines, the kidneys and the legs. As you proceed, you see that the artery enclosing you splits into many separate branches that become increasingly narrow. These countless bifurcations carry blood to the furthest reaches of the body. As you enter one of them, you see the vessel you are in becomes ever narrower. You are now no longer in an artery, but in a capillary vessel, with a diameter of 0.0002 inch.
Soon the vessel becomes so narrow that there is room for only a single erythrocyte to pass through—with difficulty. In this portion of your journey, you realize that there is a rapid exchange in the cells around you. The erythrocyte cells begin delivering the valuable cargoes of oxygen molecules they have carried on their long journeys, releasing them to cells in need of oxygen and taking up the carbon dioxide these cells have produced. In the same way, nutrient molecules carried in the blood are taken up by cells that need them.
The time has now come to head back.
When the erythrocytes give up their oxygen, their bright red color changes to a dark red. As your journey goes on, the veins become increasingly wide again. Other erythrocytes loaded with carbon dioxide from other blood vessels join in, and the blood volume increases. You shall now leave the capillary vessels and proceed on our way in the veins.
Another Marvel of Creation in the Body: The Veins
Blood flows in the arteries thanks to the heart’s pumping pressure. The effect of this pressure decreases in the blood vessels, however, and by the time it reaches the veins, the distant heart’s pumping power has declined considerably.
So how will the blood complete its return journey?
Imagine that you are in one of these veins, with a long journey back to the heart lying before you. You have to pass the regions of the legs, stomach and chest and climb upward for a long distance, overcoming the force of gravity all the same while. There is a need for a system such that every day, thousands of liters of fluid are able to travel back up from the toes to the heart.
The veins have been located with special planning, and surrounded by skeletal muscles. Every time you take a step, for example, the leg muscles that contract force blood upward at the same time. Thanks to this planning, the veins have their very own pumping system.
Toward the end of the 1.5-meter (4.92-foot) journey between the feet and the heart, another problem is encountered. When the main veins reach the body’s central region, they are no longer surrounded by skeletal muscles. Here, the respiratory muscles support the veins. The main vein immediately beneath the lung contracts every time you take a breath. The negative pressure that forms in the expanding chest therefore, helps blood to return to the heart.
One feature in the veins represents one of the finest examples of the flawless features in the body. Within the veins are located a number of valves that open solely in the direction of the heart. In this way, blood never flows back under the effect of gravity, but keeps on toward the heart.
A great many valves have been located within the veins, each of them possessing a very special creation. Each one has hinges, again composed of tissue, so created as to permit the valve to open in one direction only. We are looking at an engineering miracle here when we consider how this perfect system came about. The workers on the world’s longest pipeline have assumed three major duties, serving as engineers, as workers, and also the actual construction material.
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| The arteries have their own unique pumping systems. As the skeletal muscles contract and put pressure on the arteries, valves in the contracting region are forced open, and the blood heads directly to the heart. |
The blueprints and projects for this construction are found in the data banks in the cell nuclei. Each cell “reads” and interprets the plans for the project just like an engineer—by itself without doubt a great miracle. People feel great admiration and respect for a professor who devotes many years to academic studies, but are unaware that their own cells are able to read, understand and put into operation projects far more complex—or else they simply ignore this fact.
Depending on the plan they interpret, cells know where they have to serve in the pipeline’s construction. They also know which of the millions of cells working on this construction project they must combine with. When they find the place where they belong, they start working like laborers to construct their individual part of the pipeline. Yet for construction material, they use themselves. Every cell working on this project devotes itself to being a tiny part of the pipeline for the rest of its life.
In the walls of the veins so constructed, no protrusions or cavities are to be found. Their inner surfaces are just as smooth as if they had been polished by a marble craftsman—with one small difference, however; these surfaces consist of living cells.
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| 1) At rest. 2) The muscles contract, compress the arteries and force the blood towards the heart. The valve beneath prevents any back-flow. 3) The muscles relax and the arteries widen and fill with the blood below. The valve above prevents any back-flow. |
As the construction work proceeds, some cells make a different decision according to the plan they have read and decide to form a valve inside the vein. Thousands of cells combine and cling to the inner wall. Other cells constitute the hinges of these valves—again, by identifying just where they need to be according to the project’s requirements. The way that the hinge opens only in one direction is, again, the result of cells being able to interpret the overall plan and of their construction ability. These cells act in the knowledge that a liquid will flow through the vessel they are in, in which direction it needs to flow, and what measures they need to take to ensure that the flow is constant.
A few millimeters on from this valve, the same miracle takes place. Here, other cells with a similar consciousness form another valve. As if in agreement with the cells that constructed the former valve, theirs too opens in the same direction. If the cells which constructed a few of these valves were to make them in such a way as to open in the opposite direction, then blood could not flow through the veins, and life would immediately come to an end. The thousands of valves that exist right throughout the venous system are all constructed to work in harmony with one another.
This system is indisputably the work of a most superior Creator, and the cells can exhibit such consciousness, reason, and self-sacrifice thanks only to the Superior Force that creates them. It is Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, Who locates the projects for the world’s longest pipeline and thousands of other systems in the human body within the cell nuclei, and Who gives the cells the ability to read, interpret and act upon these instructions.
O man! What has deluded you in respect of your Noble Lord? He Who created you and formed you and proportioned you and assembled you in whatever way He willed. (Surat al-Infitar: 6-8)
The Return to the Heart
Now let’s return to our journey through the human veins. Thanks to the small one-way valves in the arteries which we have just examined in some detail, we can now head directly towards the heart—returning there some 40 seconds after we set out.
The first part of our journey began in the heart’s upper left chamber, and ends in the upper right chamber. As that journey began, we set out in bright red blood, and the first part of the sojourn ends in blood that is darker red. It is now time to set out on another journey, for the blood needs to be cleansed of its carbon dioxide and replenished with carbon dioxide.
You shall be remaining in the right ventricle, but for only a very short time. As the right ventricle contracts, another valve opens and blood is expelled toward the lungs. The valve behind you is the last safety precaution preventing deoxygenated blood from returning back to the heart. You now speed rapidly towards the lungs inside blood loaded with carbon dioxide.
The journey from the heart to the lungs is another brief one, for which reason it is known as the “small circulation.” On arriving in the lung, the red blood cells around you release the carbon dioxide they carry—whose transportation comes about through a great many complex chemical processes—and begin to take up oxygen. This exchange occurs at a breathtaking speed.
Every minute 56,000,000,000,000,000,000,000—that is, 56 x 1021 (56 septillion) oxygen atoms reach the cells in the lung.26 A great many micro-systems work together to enable just one oxygen atom to pass to the erythrocytes. Each unit works in total harmony with the one before it, allowing the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange to take place without halting for even an instant.
At the end of this breathtakingly rapid exchange, the erythrocytes around you become loaded with oxygen. Now, together with these cells, inside the veins of the lung, you set out for the heart. Eventually your journey ends back where it started from. The oxygen-rich clean blood is ready for another circuit around the body.
The Computer that Controls the Flow
There is another very interesting and significant feature of the circulatory system. It does not simply forward the blood like an ordinary pipeline system, but also regulates how much blood needs to go to which organ when necessary.
This is most astonishing, for a piping system to determine how much of the liquid it carries needs to go to which organ, and by itself to make the requisite adjustments. Arteries are able to alter the flow of blood by contracting and expanding.
Take the brain’s needs as an example. The brain is an organ that requires a steady, dependable supply of abundant blood, since it controls all the functions inside the body. Blood flow to the brain must continue at any cost. Even if blood flow to all other organs is cut off as the result of hemorrhage, a great many nerves act together so that blood can be keep being sent to the brain, and the diameters of the arteries are adjusted accordingly. Some veins leading to other organs are temporarily short-circuited, and the flow of blood is directed to the veins leading to the brain.
In her book The Incredible Machine, the evolutionist Susan Schiefbein compares the venous system to a computer:
The heart and blood vessels do more than speed or slow our blood flow to meet the body’s needs. They carry the scarlet stream to different tissues under differing pressures to fuel different actions. Blood rushes to the stomach when we eat, to the lungs and muscles when we swim, to the brain when we read. To satisfy these changing metabolic needs, the cardiovascular system integrates information as well as any computer, then responds as no computer can.27
This system, comparable to computer circuitry, without doubt came into being as the result of Allah’s creation, rather than by chance, as evolutionists would have us believe.
Inter-Related Miracles
Allah has created humans with such great artistry that every system in your body is connected to others. Any flaw in the functioning of one system causes a fault in the working of another. To understand this more clearly, examine the relationship between the circulatory and other systems.
Nutrients assimilated through digestion are carried to the cells of the body by the circulatory system. Therefore, the digestive and circulatory systems must have been created at the same time.
Chemical signals produced by the hormonal glands are carried to the relevant organs by the circulatory system. Therefore, the circulatory and hormonal systems must have been created at the same time.
Carbon dioxide in the blood is eliminated by the respiratory system. Therefore, the circulatory and respiratory systems must have been created at the same time.
Blood must constantly be cleansed in the kidneys, so the circulatory and excretory systems must have been created at the same time.
Blood cannot move through the veins unless the skeletal muscles contract, and so the circulatory and skeletal systems must have been created at the same time.
Blood cells are created in the bone marrow, so the circulatory and skeletal systems must have been created at the same time.
These examples refer only to the effects of other systems on circulation. A great number of similar examples could be cited. And another point not to be forgotten is that the circulatory system nourishes the organs in all the other systems. The tongue, saliva glands, esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver and other organs, which are all part of the digestive system—all are nourished by blood vessels. To give some further examples:
The hormone glands in the endocrine system.
Organs of the excretory system, the kidneys for example.
Components of the respiratory system, such as the lungs.
The muscles that constitute the smooth and voluntary muscular systems, and the bones constituting the skeletal system.
None of the organs in the body could survive in the absence of the circulatory system. All these connections and inter-connected systems, taken together, are some of the strongest proofs invalidating the theory of evolution. There is flawless harmony and cooperation among the systems within the human body. In order for them to serve any purpose at all, they all must have been present at the exact same time.
This leads us back to the same truth. All the features of the human body were created by Allah in a single moment.
1- John Farndon ve Angela Koo, Human Body Factfinder, Miles Kelly Publishing Ltd., ?ngiltere, 1999, s. 63 
2- Bilim ve Teknik Dergisi, ?ubat 1998, sf.61
3- R. von Bredow, GEO, Kas?m 1997
4- Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, Harper&Row, Publishers, New York: s.108
5- Guyton and Hall, Text Book of Medical Physiology, 9. Bas?m, s.432
6- Bilim ve Teknik Dergisi, ?ubat 1998, sf. 62
7- The Circulatory System, Regina Avraham, The Encylopedia of Health, Chelsea House Publishers, Bölüm 4, s. 49
8- Prof. Dr. Ahmet Noyan, Ya?amda ve Hekimlikte Fizyoloji, 10. Bask?, Meteksan A.?., Mart 1998, s.670-673
9- The Circulatory System, Regina Avraham, The Encylopedia of Health, s. 50
10- Arthur C. Guyton, Text Book of Medical Physiology, W.B. Saunders Company, 7th Edition, s. 75
11- Prof. Dr. Ali Demirsoy, Kal?t?m ve Evrim, Meteksan Yay?nlar?, Ankara, 1995, s. 420
12- Prof. Dr. Ali Demirsoy, Kal?t?m ve Evrim, s. 416-420
13- Eldra Pearl Solomon, Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology, 1.st edition, W.B. Saunders Comp., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1992, s.148
14- Bilim ve Teknik Dergisi, ?ubat 1998,sf.66-67
15- Michael Behe, Darwin's Black Box, New York: Free Press, 1996, s.79-97
16- Regina Avraham, The Circulatory System, The Encylopedia of Health, s.13
17- Solomon, Berg, Martin, Villee, Biology, Saunders College Publishing, ABD, 1993, s.890
19- Marshall Cavendish, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Human Body, s.74
20- Marshall Cavendish, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Human Body, s. 74-75
21- Marshall Cavendish, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Human Body, s. 74-75
22- Curtis&Barnes, Invitation to Biology, Worth Publishers, Inc., New York, 1985, s.415
23- Vander, Sherman, Luciano, ?nsan Fizyolojisi, Bilimsel ve Teknik Yay?nlar? Çeviri Vakf?, 1997, s.222-228
24- Lionel Bender, Science Facts, Human Body, Crescent Books, New York, New Jersey, 1992. s.32
25- Marshall Cavendish, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Human Body, s. 53
26- Regina Avraham, The Circulatory System, The Encylopedia of Health, s.43
27- Susan Schiefelbein, The Incredible Machine, Washington, D.C., National Geographic Society,1986
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