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Al-Mufadhdhal said, ‘Please Sir, explain to me the gradual development of the body stage by stage till its perfection.’ Imam as-Sadiq (a.s) said, ‘The first stage of this develop ment (of man) is the embryo in the womb that is invisible to the eye and inaccessible to the hand. His development proceeds apace, till he is perfected in body with all organs and parts complete in every detail; the heart, the liver, the intestines and all working parts, the bones, muscles, fat, the brain tendons, blood‑vessels, the cartilages all fully developed. He enters this world and you see how he develops on together with all his organs in proportion, preserving at the same time all his features without any addition or diminution. The body progresses on while retaining its well‑knit form, till his maturation, whether his life span is lengthened or shortened. Is not this profound planning and ingenuity elegantly designed by the Omniscient Designer? O Mufadhdhal! Just consider the excellence and merit of man's creation over the animals. He has been created to stand erect and sit squarely, to be able to hold things in his hands, to acquire them with his organs and to treat things with his organs. If man had been hunched like animals, he could not have performed the tasks he does now. Just consider O Mufadhdhal, the senses specifically superior to those of animals in point of constitution and efficiency so as to endow him special merit thereby. |
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The eyes are set in the head as if a lamp is set on a lamp‑post to enable man to see everything. They are not set in the lower parts like the feet and the hands to be safeguarded against injuries or accidents during work or movement, which would have ailed them and impaired their efficiency. Had they been set in the middle part of the body like the belly, the back or the breast etc., it would have been difficult to revolve them or to see things by sudden turning. The head is the cynosure; the best place for these senses in suitability compared with any other organ. The senses are made five in number to respond to all kinds of stimuli and to leave no stimulus undetected. The eyes are so constituted as to distinguish between Colours. The colours would have been meaningless without such ocular proficiency, since these colours exist as a means whereby things may be distinguished from one another or the eyes may get recreation therefore. The ears are set in the head to detect sounds, which would have been meaningless without such auricular proficiency. Similar is the case with other senses – without proficiency of the sense of taste, all tasteful foods would have been dull, without the sense of touch, the sensations of heat, cold, softness, hard ness would as well have been nonexistent and without the sense of smell, all scents would have been inert. And vice versa; if there were no colours, the eyes would be ineffective. Without sound the ears may as well be non‑existent. So just con sider how it has been ordained that there is a definite correspondence between the sense organ and the sensation‑stimulus interacting mutually. We cannot hear with our eyes, nor distin guish colours with our ears, nor smell except with our nose, and so on. Then there are media interpolated between the sense organ and the sensation‑stimulus, with out which the link cannot be |
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established. As for example in the absence of light to reflect colour, the eyes fail to recognise colour, and without air to set up sound waves, the ear would not be able to detect any sound. O Mufadhdhal, can it be, then, hidden from one who has been endowed with sound reason and who utilises his intellect correctly, after all the details I have given about the interconnection between the sense‑organs, the sensation‑stimulus and the media linking them to complete the pro cess, that all this has been planned and execu ted by the Omniscient, Almighty Allah? O Mufadhdhal! Just consider the case of a per son who has lost his eyesight and the loss he suffers in his day‑to‑day work. He cannot perceive his foothold, nor can he see ahead, nor can he recognise colours, nor appreciate a pleasing or an ugly thing. He will not be able to know a hollow ground, nor know an enemy with a drawn sword, nor can he undertake any of the handicrafts like writing, business or goldsmithery. Without his brain, he would be like a stone at rest. Similar is the case of a man deficient in hearing. He suffers loss on many counts. He has no relish for conversational talk, nor a sense for pleasant or unpleasant sounds. People have difficulty in conversing with him and they get annoyed with him. He does not hear anything of people’s news or talks until he becomes absent though he is present and dead though he is alive. The person devoid of intelligence is worse than cattle, for even the cattle recognise many a phenomena unintelligible to him. Don’t you perceive that these organs, systems, intellect and everything else required for his adjustment and without which he is at a serious disadvantage in point of the perfection of his build are duly provided? Have all these been produced without balance and knowledge? Certainly not! They are necessarily the outcome of definite design and planning of the Almighty |
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Designer.’ Mufadhdhal said, ‘Sir! How is it that some people lack some of these organs and systems and undergo the losses that you have described?’ Imam as-Sadiq (s) said, ‘It is for the admonition of the person lacking them and of other people as well that the monarch admonishes his subjects in such a way and such admonition is hardly resented, rather it is appreciated as a stratagem and is eulogised. The people who are thus afflicted will be recompensed after death, provided they are grateful to Allah and they turn to Him, so munificently that all the troubles undergone by them due to the lack of such organs will appear trivial in comparison, so much so that if after death they are allowed the choice to return to those troubles they would welcome the opportunity to earn higher recompense. O Mufadhdhal! Just consider the ingenuity and balanced design underlying the production of the organs and systems in pairs or as single units. Just consider the head which is created a single unit and it is but just appropriate not to have been created in more than one unit. A second head would have been only an additional weight; quite unnecessary, seeing that one head comprises all the senses needed for man. Two heads would have meant two parts of men. So if he used only one for talk, the other would have been re dundant. To have used both simultaneously for the same talk would have been meaningless, inasmuch as no further purpose is served thereby. A person would have been much handi capped in the business he had to transact, if he had been created with one instead of a pair of hands. Don't you see that a carpenter or a mason is unable to carry on his profes sion if one of his hands gets paralysed? And in case he tries to do his work with a single |
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hand, he cannot perform it as dextbeingerously and efficiently as with the help of both hands. O Mufadhdhal! Just consider a man's voice and conversation and the constitution of the organs concerned therewith. The larynx, which pro duces the sound, is like a tube while the tongue, the lips and the teeth mould the sound into letters and words. Don’t you see that a person who loses his teeth cannot reproduce the sound of the letter “s”? He who gets his lips cut cannot pronounce “f”, while a thick tongue cannot give the sound of “r”. A bagpipe resembles it a great deal. The larynx is comparable to the pipe, and the bag into which air is blown corresponds to the lungs containing air. The muscles controlling the lungs to produce sounds resemble the fingers pressing the air of the bag into the pipe. The lips and teeth, which mould the sounds into letters and words, correspond to the fingers on the orifices of the pipe giving rise to music and song. The larynx here has been regarded as an analogue to the bagpipe by way of explanation, whereas in re ality the bagpipe is the instrument constructed on the pattern of the natural organ, the larynx. O Mufadhdhal! The organs of speech here portrayed suffice for a correct reproduction of the letters. There are, however, other functions allotted to these. The larynx, for instance, is so fashioned as to admit fresh air into the lungs to supply the blood and heart, which if it fails even for a moment causes death. The tongue is forged as to distinguish between the varied tastes of foods one from the other – the sweet from the sour, the purely sour from the sweetish sour, the salty from the sweet. The tongue also helps to feel the pleasantness of water and food. The teeth masticate the food to make it soft enough for easy digestion. They also hinder the lips from being sucked |
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O Mufadhdhal! We have explained to you the multifarious functions performed by them and the benefits accruing from them, just as the same tool may serve different purposes; for instance, the axe may be used by a carpenter and may also be used for digging the earth and for other purposes. If you look at the brain, you will find it wrapped up in membranes one upon the other to protect it from injuries and movement. The skull protects it as a helmet against being shat tered to pieces by a knock or percussion on the head. The skull is covered with hair like a fleecy covering, safeguarding it against hot and cold. Who, then, except Allah the Almighty endowed the brain with such security and protection, and who made it the fountain of sense perception and who made the arrangements for its extraordinary protection in comparison with all other parts of the body because of its important status to the body? O Mufadhdhal! Just consider the eyelid – how it is fashioned as a screen for the eye with the eyelashes like tile strings for raising and lower ing the screen. Just notice how the eyeball is set in a cavity shaded by the screen and hair. O Mufadhdhal, who has concealed the heart within the breast and covered it with a screen which you may call the membrane? Who has arranged for its protection by means of the ribs, the muscles and flesh interwoven in such a way as to prevent anything getting to it to cause an abrasion? Who has shaped two holes in the throat; one for the production of the |
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sound situated in proximity with the lungs and the other called the gullet leading to the stomach for the entry of the food, and who has placed a flap, the epiglottis, over the hole leading to the larynx, to prevent food from entering the lungs, which would cause death if not thus managed? Who has caused the lungs to fan air to the heart indefatig ably without rest to remove the toxins that would destroy it otherwise? Who has shaped the sphincters controlling the outlets of urine and stool, like the strings of a purse to be opened or shut at will and not to drip all the while automatically causing a persistent nuisance in life? Similarly there are matters which a computer may compute, but others which men have no knowledge of are beyond computation. Who has given such resilience to the muscles of the stomach that it has been commissioned to digest coarse foods? And who has made the liver soft and tender to accept nutriment in purified and rectified form and function more finely than the stomach? Can all these tasks be completed by any one except the Omnipotent Almighty? Can you imagine that all this can be performed by inert nature? Certainly not! All this is the planning of the Almighty, Omniscient Designer, Who has the fullest knowledge and has perfect omnipotence in advance of creation. He is Allah, the All Knowing, Almighty. O Mufadhdhal! Consider why the tender marrow is kept protected inside bone tubes – just for the sake of protecting it from going to waste under the influence of the sun’s heat which might melt it, or that of cold which might solidify it, which would blast life. And why is this circulation of blood con fined to within the blood vessels, except that it should function inside the body and not flow out? Why are these nails fixed on fingers, except that they afford protection against damage and help in better efficiency, for without them the presence of flesh alone would |
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not have enabled man to pick up things with a pinch, to use a pen for writing or to thread a needle? Why is the inside of the ear made spiralled as a prison‑house, except that the sounds may be carded to the membrane for detection without damage thereto by the violence of air impact? Why flesh is woven over man’s thighs and buttocks, except that he may not be in convenienced by the hardness of the floor in sitting, as is the case of a person of thin, emaciated constitution unless something intervenes between him and the floor to tone down in hardness like a cushion or a sofa? Who has created the human race as man and woman? Surely He Who ordained the race to flourish by the method of the union of the two sexes or at least to maintain its numerical strength, through the differentiation of the two sexes. And who made him the progenitor of a generation? Surely He Who implanted hope in him. Who gave him the organs for action? Surely He Who made him a worker. And who made him a worker? Surely He Who created him needy. Man would not have worked if he had no need to fulfil. If he did not need to satisfy his hunger, why should he have laboured, why should he have taken to business and industry? Had he no need to safeguard his body against heat and cold, why should he have learnt sewing, needle‑manufacturing, spinning, weaving, cotton growing, etc. And in the absence of all this, of what use would have been the organs of action and the fingers? And who created him needy? Surely He Who created for him the factors of neediness. And who created for him the factors of neediness? Surely He Who took upon Him self the responsibility of supplying the needs. Who endowed him with intellect? Surely He Who made reward and chastisement as essential for him. He would not need intellect if he were not responsible for reward and punish ment. |
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The Almighty Creator endowed him with intellect to distinguish between good and evil, having decided upon reward and punishment as essential for him to get the reward for good ness and chastisement for evil. The animals, which are not subject to reward or punish ment, have no sense of good and evil, nor do they know the distinction between the forbidden and the lawful, the condemned and the approved types of action. They recognise however, the fac tors needed by them for the survival of their species or individuality. Who has endowed him with strategy and percipience? Surely He Who has gifted him with energy. And who has gifted man with energy? Surely He Who ordained justification of conduct on him. O Mufadhdhal! Just consider what I have explained to you. Can there be such orderliness and method in the absence of planning? Certainly not! Allah the Almighty is far exalted above what those people say. O Mufadhdhal! Now I describe the heart to you. Know that it has holes directed towards the holes that are in the lung to refresh the heart and if these holes are different from each other, refreshments will not reach the heart and then man will perish. Is it possible for a sane, reasonable one to claim that such a thing is done in ignorance? Does he not find evidence in himself to prevent him from such a claim? Suppose you found one shutter of a door having a latch fixed to it, can you imagine it to have been fixed without any purpose? Surely you will conclude that it is there to be joined to the other shutter for a definite advantage. Similarly you will find a male creature as one individual of a pair created for a female individual so they can unite to preserve the race. May Allah destroy those who claim to be philosophers but are so purblind in their ap proach to such wonders of creation and constitution that they deny in the creation of the uni verse the |
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If the genital of man were relaxed, how would it reach the bottom of the woman’s womb in order to empty the sperm? And if it were hard and erect for always, then how would man turn about in the bed or walk among people with something erect before him? Then, besides it would be ugly, it would provoke sexual lust in men and women all the time. Therefore, Allah the Almighty has made it invisible to the sights most of the time and made it no burden on men. Allah has made it to be erect at the time of need to preserve the human race. O Mufadhdhal! See with receptive eyes the great boon of Allah, the Almighty, in the relief of trouble after taking in food and drink. Is it not an elegance of plan in the construction of a house that the lavatory should be in a secluded part thereof? In the same way, Allah the Almighty has made the orifice for the ex creta of man in a secret place. It is not in the open nor has it prominence, but it is so situated as to be perfectly hidden by the junction of the thighs and the buttocks with their fleshly matter. When a man needs to answer the call of nature and assumes the requisite posture of sitting, the orifice allows the excreta to escape. Exalted be Allah Whose signs and blessings can never be counted! O Mufadhdhal! Just consider the teeth set in the mouth of man. Some are sharp, which in cise and sunder the food. Others are flat, which chew and pulverize. Since both types, are required so man is supplied with them accordingly. Just consider and appreciate the ingenuity underlying why it is proper to have the hair cut and the nails clipped. They grow and increase and need to be clipped. As such they are devoid of sensation in order to not cause pain to man. In case the clipping causes pain, they would either be left to grow inordinately and become burdensome or pain would come out |
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of clipping.’ Al-Mufadhdhal said, ‘Sir! Why were they not designed so as to not thrive to an extent that their clipping would be necessary?’ Imam as-Sadiq (A.S) said, ‘There are, indeed, numberless boons of Allah the Almighty to his creatures that are unknown to them and which if they knew them, they would be grateful for. Know that the troubles and ailments of the body are relieved through the hair coming out of the pores. (Vapours and sweat are excluded through these pores.) The fingers get relief of their ailments through the nails. That is why a weekly clipping of nails, shaving of head and removing of redundant hair must be effected, so that the nails and the hair should grow fast and relieve ailments and troubles. Ailments remain confined in the body otherwise with consequent pains and diseases. No hair growth is allowed on parts of the body where they would harm man. If hair grew inside the eyes, man would be blinded. If hair grew inside the mouth, man would suffer too much with his food and drink. If hair grew on the palms of hands, it would cause man some difficulties with the sense of touching and make it difficult for man to do some tasks. There is great ingenuity underlying keeping certain spots of the body hairless. This is not only with man but also with animals. You see that their entire bodies are covered with hair, with the exception of particular parts for the same reasons. So consider this affair of creation and see how error and harm have been avoided while rectitude and benefit have been secured. When the followers of Mani and their likes tried to impugn the belief in purposeful creation (of the universe), they found fault with the growth of hair on the pubis and the armpits. They failed to grasp that such growth was due to the moisture flowing to those parts. The hair grows there just as grass grows at places where water collects. Don't you see how these spots |
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Yet another strategy underlying this is that it renders one more discomfort to man, regarding his body, and, as long as he is kept busy with the cleanliness of his body and the removal of his hair, he is prevented from perpetrating acts of greed, cruelty, conceit and impudence for which he may not get the opportunity. Just consider the saliva in the mouth and see the wisdom underlying it. It is so composed as to ensure constant flow to keep the throat and the palate moist, to not allow dryness that may lead to death therein. Without it, food would not be chewed nor would it flow down. Some ignorant debaters and half‑witted claimants to philosophy, because of their deficient understanding and faulty knowledge, have said: It would have been better if the belly of man had been like a cloak to enable the physi cian to open it at will, observe its contents and poke his hand inside for medical treatment, and not as it is walled in, mysteriously hidden from the reach of the eyes and the hands. The internal disorders can now only be gauged by delicate symptoms of the examination of urine, pulse etc., which are not above error and doubt to an extent that such error in pulse and urine examination may lead to death. Would that these ignorant claimants to philosophy and polemics had known that it would have removed all apprehension of disease and death. (Any attack of disease would then have been met successfully by a reopening of the cloak‑like belly, learning the exact cause and its removal). Man would then have been infatuated with his eternality and healthfulness, which would have rendered him wilful and conceited. The open belly would have allowed constant trickling of moisture, thus spoiling his seat, bed and nice dresses. In short, it disturbs his whole living under such circumstances. |
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The stomach, the liver and the heart function properly because of the vital heat, which would have been disturbed by the influence of the outside air acting through the belly under treatment, open to the reach of the eye and the hand. This would cause death. Don't you see that all hypotheses aside of the real nature of creation and constitution are far‑fetched and preposterous? |
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