The air conditioner running nonstop in our body

Breathing is one of the acts that you unconsciously perform throughout the day. Many processes take place during this action, in which the nose, windpipe and lungs are involved. In reality, breathing means feeding oxygen to your body cells. Cells cannot survive unless they are provided with oxygen. This is why you can hold your breath for only a brief time. If this duration is lengthened, your cells die, which results in the death of your body.

The air you breathe is first cleaned in your nose. Your nose, which carries out air conditioning, is lined with hairs that function like a filter. These hairs process the polluted or cool air to make it agreeable to the lungs. It is thanks to these hairs that the air we take in is filtered, cleaned, humidified, warmed and purified of bacteria. Indeed, these tiny hairs protect our bodies against about 20 billion particles of foreign matter every day.

Twenty billion is about 3 times the world population. It is quite a thorough process that the nose knows and by which it distinguishes that many particles of foreign matter. Twenty billion particles of foreign matter cannot possibly be recognised and hindered from passing through the nose by chance. This clearly reveals the greatness of Allah's power of creation. Some people, however, claim that this happens by chance, even though they are well aware of the truth. Such people, who believe in the theory of evolution, maintain that all living beings, including everything what we have dealt with so far in this book, came into existence spontaneously and as a result of random occurrences sometime in the past. Do you wonder why they do so? They claim so in order to deny Allah's existence. And to do that they think there is only one way, which is to claim that everything occurs by chance. However, one merely has to give it a little thought to grasp how senseless this claim is. Now let's take the system in the nose as an example to refute this claim.

The air conditioning system in the nose is another perfect part of the human body. Surely such a perfectly running system could not have come into existence as a result of coincidences. Making a comparison may help us to comprehend this impossibility better. Consider an air conditioner, which controls the temperature so as to protect you from heat in the summer and to warm you up in the winter, and which is remote-controlled. Could such a system have come into existence by chance? What would happen if all of its parts were disassembled and left in that condition? Would they come together in time and turn into a complete air conditioner on their own?

Certainly not. For any machinery to come into being, some intelligent person should work on it. This is quite incontrovertible. Let alone machinery, even in a jigsaw puzzle somebody has to reassemble the pieces correctly in order to get the picture. Your nose, which functions as an air conditioner, is composed of numerous components too and possesses a much more perfect system than any air conditioner in the world. Just as an air conditioner cannot come into being by chance, neither can a nose, which is even more advanced. This fact reveals to us that this organ, which is known as "the best air conditioning system in the world", is created by our Lord. Allah stresses His attribute of Creator in the following verse:

He is Allah-the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Hashr: 24)

Hairs in the Windpipe That Can Navigate Faultlessly

The air that is purified in the nose will proceed through the respiratory tract. The next area for the inhaled air after the nose is the windpipe. In this air, there is still foreign matter-like dust-that is harmful to one's health. Therefore, it is necessary to have the inhaled air go through another security check before it reaches the lungs. This security is ensured by the slippery layer that lines the surface of the respiratory tract. This membrane is called mucous layer.

Mucous, which forms this layer, grasps tiny particles like dust that we've taken in together with the air and hinders them from entering the lungs. Yet, in addition to this, the accumulated foreign matter must also be eliminated from the body. At this

point, another security mechanism comes into play. This mechanism consists of tiny hair-like structures called cilia, which lie under the mucous layer. These tiny hairs rhythmically beat upwards towards the mouth. This can be compared to ears of wheat waving in the wind all in the same direction. Thanks to this movement of the cilia, mucous, which holds the foreign matter, is carried upwards in the windpipe.

Once this foreign matter is drawn up to the throat, you naturally feel the need to swallow it. So all the foreign matter that could harm your health is passed to the stomach, where it is disintegrated and destroyed by the gastric juice.

The cilia placed in the windpipe do not have eyes to see, nor do they have brains to give them intellectual ability. Still they can determine the position of the pharynx, which is too far from themselves in comparison with their sizes. Besides, being aware of the possible harm of foreign matter, they do not let them enter the body. Despite years of scientific research, the mechanism of these hairs has not been fully discovered. But remember that these hairs, whose system has not been found out by human beings yet, have been working perfectly like all other components of the body since the first man was created on the face of the earth.

THE BREATHED IN AIR IS NOW IN THE LUNGS…

The air that comes to the lungs is ready for use as it has been cleaned and its humidity has been regulated through the windpipe. By means of blood circulation from the lungs, it is conveyed to all cells of the body to nourish them. In the meantime it receives from the cells carbon dioxide, which is a waste material. When we expel breath, we give out this carbon dioxide that is collected from our cells.

You may consider breathing a simple process, but a significant exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place deep inside your body. All these are Allah's gifts to us; He created all of them and placed them at our service. Consider how it would be even if merely respiration were under our conscious control. We would not be able to faultlessly carry out this process. We would get tired and would eventually give up after some time. Our Lord knows that we cannot perform this task on our own. So He created the respiratory system which runs perfectly like all other systems as we have explained throughout the book. This is one of the gifts that Allah has given us in this world. As stated in a verse:

He has given you everything you have asked Him for. If you tried to number Allah's blessings, you could never count them. Man is indeed wrongdoing and ungrateful. (Surah Ibrahim: 34)