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Each animal, especially humankind, is a magnificently artistic work of Allah that the wondrous things on them demonstrate their Creator.
If we ask people “what is the issue that troubles you most?”, we will possibly hear the word “time”. By the word “time”, we mean the flowing of time and what it takes away from our life, youth, expectations, dreams or bodies. We will show a different point of view on the issue of aging of body about which we complain the most. We will try to see the great art on the aging of our body which is one of many other benefactions we don’t appreciate properly.
Our first movement in this world, the time we came into existence, is not a step but rolling into our mothers’ venter. It is a rolling into an end, into a process, moreover into processes which start with ends. You start being divided into cells; two cells, four cells, eight cells and find yourselves in an endless spiral even without being able to say “I am a newcomer to this world.” This goes on until the final ring rang for all cells.
Human body is not an elemental whole. It consists of parts, organs, cells, parts of cells. There are systems interconnecting these organs and cells. Lots of systems are at work in our bodies, which we use recklessly, such as the circulatory system that carries nutrients and oxygen to sixty trillion cells one by one, the neural system that accepts signals from more than a billion centre and answer and take steps according to signals, the endocrine system that controls all secretions and can make the body produce secretions with a precision of one millionth of a gram, and many other systems the existence of which we are not even aware. We benefit from the most precious blessing called life as a result of every organ’s fulfilling their duty properly and the harmony of these organs and systems among themselves.
When it comes to the issue of aging of body, we see another divine art of Allah.
Let’s say, you bought a car that costs a hundred thousand dollars. All parts and devices are working properly. However you will be warned to renew your car’s engine oil after you have driven five or ten thousand miles. You will be warned again to change your tyres after you have driven thirty or forty thousand kilometres. You will be finally warned of being stranded unless you change them. Attention! If you disregard these warnings, your car that costs a hundred thousand dollars will be useless due to mere parts may be worth just a hundred dollars. While many other parts of your car are working properly, some parts die earlier. This shows that not all parts of a car wear out at the same time. Unlike the metal parts, which are stronger, the plastic pieces that you often have to change can be sometimes rather annoying. Every changed part will affect the performance of the car due to the problem of adaptation.
However, this aging operation in the body of a human, which is the greatest art of Allah, takes place in an amazing style. Getting old or aging happen in an amazingly systematic way. All parts, organs and systems of the body get old at the same rate. There aren’t different aging phases of body parts according to their own capabilities as in car parts. Every part shows coherence with other parts during aging.
For example, when your liver gets old, it cannot handle a plenty of kinds of materials. Teeth’s disability of chewing hard materials and stomach’s disability of digesting all kinds of food help the liver by eating less, soft and easily digestible food.
Shrunk and un-elastic muscles help weak and shaky bones by lifting less weight, moving and reflexing slower. So that bones are protected from fractures and strong aches.
Our now old hearts get help of our feeble bodies, decelerated metabolism and systems. They don’t tire the heart thanks to their need for less blood.
Even the aging of our feelings and excitement help our whole body. They don’t expect the body anymore to have its past hustle and sacrifice; they make it move calmer and more cautiously.
Our weakened kidney gets help of inappetence. Poor appetite makes the body cut the drinks and foods that it cannot filter; it even makes the body become disinterested in them, thus exhausting it no more.
There are more examples like these in our bodies. Aging as a whole and cooperation during this process catch our eyes as a divine art of Allah. Actually this total aging extends life. If one part or system of our body got older a little faster than other parts, death of the body would be earlier and other parts would be wasted.
If you walk with a group of people at different ages, the slowest or oldest person determines the speed of the group. However, this speed will be unbearable for the young or the fast. Moreover, it will cause the group to disperse before arriving at the target. It means that the death of the whole body as a group is caused by disharmony of its members. Quite the opposite, a homogeneous group of people at the same age and energy will not possibly scatter; the difficulty of speed will be the same for everyone. The target will be achieved by the harmony of the group. That is exactly the art of harmony and cooperation in our body, which will last so long as we breathe.
In spite of the fact that getting old has a bitter face, it contains an art and a system that serves life. Eternal power of Allah, which makes all parts of the body age together, makes the aging serve long life of the body. A power, which does not have a deep effect on all parts and all cells of the body, which cannot foresee the future and cannot know the process of life to take precautions, won’t be able to give such a divine performance.
For all divine arts that we are honoured by, all glorifications and all praises as many as the moments of the lives of all living creatures are for Allah, Whose Divine Essence does not have any defects nor any shortcomings.