The global telecommunications
network that enables hundreds of millions of telephone calls to be made
simultaneously is something amazing. Yet in comparison to the network found in
a person’s brain, it seems quite ordinary. A human brain contains, on the average,
100 billion neurons.
We cite the following example to
understand this perfect network better: if the brain’s neurons were laid end to
end, they would stretch for several hundred thousand kilometers. This
extraordinary network is a main reason why scientists describe the brain as one of the universe’s greatest mysteries.
There are around 100 trillion places
in the brain, known as synapses, where chemical processes occur. Any bodily
cell can establish a connection with 1,000 separate brain cells by utilizing
these synapses. The speed of the resulting information processing is truly
amazing—one single data byte can reach 100,000 neurons at the same time. As a
result, the brain functions hundreds of thousands of times faster than the most
advanced computer. Dr Kerry Bernstein, IBM’s director of technology, has said
that it does not seem possible to make a similar device with the same speed and
characteristics.1
Of course, it is impossible to build
such a comprehensive network, squeeze it into a minute space, construct
quadrillions of connections, and then ensure that they all work in
milliseconds. Creating this perfect system, which has existed in each human
being who has ever lived, is beyond human capability.
The
slightest brain damage can leave a person handicapped or even dead. In fact,
this organ is so delicate that the failure of electrical signals to reach a
single cell can cause the loss of one of the senses that enable us to perceive the
outside world. No single point in it can come into being by chance, and its
perfect organization and equipment cannot be altered in a random manner.
The brain, this
comprehensive and detailed miracle, was created so that people could realize
this truth. This great gift belongs to Almighty Allah, Who provides all kinds
of blessings without demanding any recompense. The existence of this sublime
marvel of creation once again displays our Lord’s greatness and might:
We created
humanity from the purest kind of clay, then made him a drop in a secure
receptacle, then formed the drop into a clot, formed the clot into a lump,
formed the lump into bones, clothed the bones in flesh, and then brought him into
being as another creature. Blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators. (Surat
al-Mu’minun, 12-14)
الله
سبحانه وتعالى
