This is a great post written by my friend, Ainu Husna, a PhD student who is studying in Australia. It is about Islam and biology. A nice read ..
"
When we decided to come to Australia almost three years ago, though exciting, there were many worries in my mind. Will I be able to do well in my Phd? Will we manage financially? Will we be able to cope taking care of the family? Having a ‘bibik’ for a year has pampered me somewhat..and of course being a Muslim in the post 9/11 times, there’s always a bit of worry on how we will be accepted in a non-Muslim world. Many of the worries above proved unnecessary, praises to Allah. Sure, we haven’t had a super easy life here but hey, life’s an adventure...always with ups and downs and all in all, our life here is much easier than many.
My worry being a Muslim in a non-Muslim world was also not necessary. The Australians that I’ve met proved to be very open people and accepting to the different religions and culture. Of course, I can’t say that’s true about everyone in Australia but from my experience, that’s the idea I’m getting. One thing I like about the Aussies is their genuine interest to know. They can really ask questions! Not to intimidate, but just to know..which I really appreciate.
Perhaps one of the first questions I was asked was; “How can you be a scientist when you believe in God ?” When the whole modern science is based on evolution.. that’s a pretty tricky question to answer when it’s coming from a western scientist.. hmm..I can’t really remember what I answered back then, or I probably just smiled and kept quite out of respect for the senior scientist, because I have a different question ;
“How can you be a scientist and not believe in God ?”
This is the reason to my question. I’ve been doing Biology since 1992..(gosh I’m old)..From microbes to plants and now cows.. cow’s brains to be exact.. the more I learn , the more I’m convinced that there is a Creator, things can’t just happen..To me, everything in nature is too perfect.. everything in nature just works perfectly ..think about it.. every single creature, every single plant, every single stone or formation have their own functions. Let’s take an ecosystem in a cave for example, if there’s no caves, bats can’t live in them , if there’no bats, there’s no food for snakes.. if there’s no snakes, well..there’s no food for eagles and they’ll be too many bats around and they’ll find other places to stay and disrupt the ecosystem somewhere else. This is just one tiny weeny example, it just takes a flick to the discovery channel to just see how amazing nature can be and to me, everything is too perfect to just happen by chance or evolve..too perfect.
Now, as I’ve ventured into the world of molecules, genes and DNA, my amazement in Allah’s creation has increased even more. DNA is such an amazing molecule. The basics is so simple; every human being’s genome has 3 billion of 4 bases as we usually know as A C T G. But yet, how it works is so complicated and even after years and years trying, scientists are still in the dark of how it actually works. This is a proof of the wonder of this molecule. No two creatures have the exact same DNA sequence, well except for identical twins. And all humans, no matter whether we’re Asean, Caucasian, African, Arabs; our DNA is 99.9% similar..99.9%! Amazing isn’t it? Masyallah ! Everyone’s DNA is only 0.1% different from each other..but look around ! everyone sure looks different .. not only look different.., everyone works differently as well, some are prone to some diseases than others, some have better skills than other..not to mention, everyone behaves differently as well..
The structure of the genome too is amazing. The genome is in the nucleus of every single cell of our body and is folded into a structure that we know as chromosome. I read this in one of Harun Yahya’s book years ago..structural studies show, that if all our 3 billion bases is arranged like lines in a book; the length would make 900 volumes of 500 pages encyclopedias ! and to think it can fit in a nucleus of a cell that we can’t even with our naked eye.. It seems impossible, isn’t it ? Well it’s not..
Just by looking at only one molecule, my amazement in Allah’s creation grew even more..how DNA work is so complicated but yet so perfect and I’m convinced that Allah is the only one that can make it work ..No wonder Allah has always encouraged us to learn and read. He knows that knowing the truth will bring us closer to Him..insyallah...Of course I’m not saying those in science are more religious than others..I for one have so so so much more to learn. We don’t have to be in the lab to discover the wonders of Allah’s creations do we? We just need to look around and we will find.. "
This post is copyright and production of Ainu Husna Suhaimi Inc :-)
* my thanks to Na who allowed me to publish her piece
