PHYSIOLOGY
BLOOD CIRCULATION AND MILK
The Qur’an was revealed 600 years before the
Muslim scientist Ibn Nafees described the
circulation of the blood and 1,000 years before
William Harwey brought this understanding to the
Western world. Roughly thirteen centuries before it
was known what happens in the intestines to
ensure that organs are nourished by the process of
digestive absorption, a verse in the Qur’an described
the source of the constituents of milk, in conformity
with these notions.
To understand the Qur’anic verse concerning the
above concepts, it is important to know that
chemical reactions occur in the intestines and that,
from there, substances extracted from food pass into
the blood stream via a complex system; sometimes
by way of the liver, depending on their chemical
nature. The blood transports them to all the organs
of the body, among which are the milk-producing
mammary glands.
In simple terms, certain substances from the
contents of the intestines enter into the vessels of
the intestinal wall itself, and these substances are
transported by the blood stream to the various
organs.
This physiological concept must be fully appreciated if we
wish to understand the following verses of the Qur’an:
وَإِنَّ لَكُمْ
فِي الأَنْعَامِ لَعِبْرَةً نُّسْقِيكُم مِّمَّا فِي بُطُونِهِ مِن بَيْنِ فَرْثٍ
وَدَمٍ لَّبَنًا خَالِصًا سَآئِغًا لِلشَّارِبِينَ
“And verily in cattle there is
a lesson for you.
We give you to drink
of what is inside their bodies,
coming from a conjunction
between the contents of the
intestine and the blood,
a milk pure and pleasant for
those who drink it.”
[Al-Qur’an 16:66]
وَإِنَّ لَكُمْ
فِي الْأَنْعَامِ لَعِبْرَةً نُّسقِيكُم مِّمَّا فِي بُطُونِهَا وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا
مَنَافِعُ كَثِيرَةٌ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ
“And in cattle (too) ye
have an instructive example:
from within their bodies
We produce (milk)
for you to drink;
there are, in them,
(besides), numerous (other)
benefits for you;
and of their (meat) ye eat.”
[Al-Qur’an 23:21]
*** Translation of this Qur’anic verse is from the book “The Bible, the
Qur’an and Science” by Dr. Maurice Bucaille.
The 1400 year old Qur’anic description of the
production of milk in cattle is strikingly similar to what
modern physiology has discovered in recent times
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