Biomimetics: Drawinginspiration from the design in living things

There is instruction for you in cattle. From the contents of their
bellies, from between the dung and blood, We give you pure milk to
drink, easy for drinkers to swallow.(Qur'an, 16:66)
And there is certainly a lesson for you in your livestock. We give you
todrink from what is in their bellies and there are many ways in which
you benefit from them, and some of them you eat; and you are conveyed
on them and on ships as well.(Qur'an, 23:21-22)
Before scientists and research and development experts embark on new
projects,they usually look for models in living things and imitate
their systemsand designs. In other words, they see and study the
designs created in nature by Allah and, inspired by these, go on to
develop their own new technologies.
This approach has given birth to biometrics, a new branch of science
that seeks to imitate living things. In recent times, this branch of
science has come to be widely applied in the world of technology.
Theuse of the word "ibratan," (to learn from, advice, importance,
important thing, or model) in the above verses is most wise in this
regard.
Biomimetics refers to all of the substances, equipment, mechanisms,and
systems that people produce in order to imitate the systems present in
nature. The scientific community currently feels a great need for the
use of such equipment, particularly in the fields of nanotechnology,
robot technology, artificial intelligence, medicine, and the military.
Biomimicry was first put forward by Janine M. Benyus, a writer and
scientific observer from Montana. This concept was later analysed by
many other people and began to find applications. Some of the comments
made regarding biomimicry are as follows:
The theme of"biomimicry" is that we have much to learn fromthe natural
world, as model, measure, and mentor. What these researchers have in
common is a reverence for natural designs, and the inspiration to use
them to solve human problems. 1
David Oakey, product strategist for Interface Inc., a company that
usesnature to increasing product quality and productivity, says:
Nature is my mentor for business and design, a model for the way of
life. Nature's system has worked for millions of years … Biomimicry is
a way of learning from nature. 2
Scientists who began to favour this rapidly spreading idea accelerated
their studies by using nature's incomparable and flawless designs as
models. These designs represent models for technological research, for
they provide the maximum productivity for the least amount of
materials and energy, and are self-maintaining, environmentally
friendly, silent, aesthetically attractive, resistant, and
long-lasting. The High Country News newspaper described biomimetics as
"a scientific movement" and made the following comment:
By using natural systemsas models, we can createtechnologies that are
more sustainable than those in use today. 3
Janine M. Benyus, who believed that models in nature should be
imitated, gave the following examples in her book,Biomimicry:
Innovation Inspired by Nature(Perennial: 2002):
• Hummingbirds cross the Gulf of Mexico on less than 3 grams (one
tenth of an ounce) of fuel,
• Dragonflies outmanoeuvre our best helicopters,
• Heating and air-conditioning systemsin termite mounds are superior
in terms of equipment and energy consumption to those made by human
beings,
• A bat's high-frequency transmitter is more efficient and sensitive
than our own radar systems,
• Light-emitting algae combine various chemicals to illuminate their bodies,
• Arctic fish and frogs freeze solid and then spring to life, having
protected their organs from ice damage,
• Chameleons and cuttlefish change the pattern of their skin to blend
instantly with their surroundings,
• Bees, turtles, and birds navigate without maps, and
• Whales and penguins dive without scuba gear.
These astonishing mechanisms and designsin nature, of which we have
cited only a few, have the potential to enrich technology in a wide
range of fields. This potential is becoming ever more obvious as our
accumulated knowledgeand technological meansincrease.
All animals possess many features that amaze human beings. Some have
the ideal hydrodynamic shape that allows them to move through water,
and others employ senses that appear very foreign to us. Most of these
are features that researchers have encountered for the firsttime, or,
rather, that they have only recently discovered. On occasion, it is
necessary to bring together prominent scientists from such fields as
computer technology, mechanical engineering, electronics,mathematics,
physics, chemistry, and biology in order to imitate just one feature
of a living thing.
Scientists are amazed when confronted with the incomparable structures
and systems they are discovering with every passing day, and use that
amazementto inspire themselves to produce new technologies for
humanity's benefit. Realising that the existing perfect systems and
extraordinary techniques applied in nature are far superior to their
own knowledge and intellect, they became aware of these matchless
solutions to existing problems and are now resorting to thedesigns in
nature to resolve problems that have eluded them for years. As a
result, they will perhaps achieve success in a very short time.
Moreover, by imitating nature, scientists are making very important
gains with regard to time and labour and also to the targeted use of
material resources.
Today we see the developing technology gradually discovering the
miracles of creation and using the extraordinary designs in living
things, as in the case of biomimetics, in the service of humanity.
Benyus has stated that "'Doing it nature's way' has the potential to
change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal
ourselves, store information, and conduct business." 4The following
are just a few of the many scientific papers to have considered such
subjects:
"Science is Imitating Nature," 5
"Life's Lessons in Design," 6
"Biomimicry: Secrets Hiding in Plain Sight," 7
"Biomimicry: InnovationInspired by Nature," 8
"Biomimicry: Genius That Surrounds Us," 9
"Biomimetics: Creating Materials from Nature's Blueprints," 10and
"Engineers Ask Nature for Design Advice." 11
In the nineteenth century, nature was imitated only in aesthetic
terms. Artists and architects of that time were influenced by nature
and used examples of the structures' external appearances in their
works. Yet the realisation of nature's extraordinary designs and that
these could be used to benefit human beings only began in thetwentieth
century with the study of natural mechanisms at the molecular level.
Scientists today are learning from living things, as revealed in
theQur'an 1,400 years ago.

The miracle of fire andwood that cannot be obtained artificially

Have you thought about the fire that you light? Isit you who make the
trees that fuel it grow orare We the Grower? We have made it to be a
reminder and a comfort for travellers in the wild.So glorify the name
of your Lord, the Magnificent! (Surat al-Waqi 'a, 71-74)
One of the chemical substances mainly responsible for the structure of
wood is "lignocellulose." This substance is a compoundof the materials
known as "lignin" and "cellulose" that give wood its hardness. In
terms of chemicalstructure, woodis made up of 50% cellulose, 25%
hemicelluloses and 25% lignin.1An analysis of these substances'
chemical formulae reveals three vital elements: hydrogen, oxygen and
carbon.
Hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are the building blocks of millions of
substances in nature. Butas a miracle from Allah, these three also
combineto give rise to the substance "lignocellulose" found inplants.
Although scientists know that theycontain these substancesthey are
unable to reproduce this special material in plants. Although these
elementsfound in large amounts in nature can easily be obtained,
scientists havebeen unable to obtain a single piece of wood by
artificial means, despite having countless examples before them. Yet
all the trees we see around us have been ceaselessly producing this
compound for millions of years by combining oxygen, carbon, water and
sunlight.
One of the compounds inlignocellulose is water, expressed by the
formula H2O. The fact that wood is one of the most flammable materials
despite containing a large amount of water is a most special state of
affairs. The above verse is very wise in noting that wood cannot be
made by human beings, by fire. Thanks to these compounds and the water
it contains, wood is one of the most important fuels of fire.
Trees are an important sphere of scientific research, and inspire
scientists, who are still struggling to grasp all the details in their
creation, in a number of areas. The complex structures of the cells
that constitute trees have still not been fully unraveled, despite
advances in technology and intensive research. The Forestry Commission
of Great Britain, one of the world's leading forestry research
institutions, says the following under the heading "Lack of
Information on the Chemistry and Structure of Wood Fibres":
Despite the knowledge resulting from earlier and ongoing research,
there still exists a lack of information on the chemistry and
structure of wood fibres. Large variations can be found within a
single tree, from the pith to the bark and from the base to the top of
a tree. Often the chemistry and structure of a wood cell are extremely
heterogeneous and difficult to investigate with conventional
techniques.2
A paper in the scientific journalPlant Physiologytitled "Our
Understanding of How Wood Develops is not Complete" describes the
limited knowledge of the subject that scientists possess:
Considering the important role that wood is foreseen to playin the
near future, it is surprising to see that our understanding of how
wood develops is far from complete. With a few exceptions, very little
is known about thecellular, molecular, and developmental processesthat
underlie wood formation. Xylogenesis represents an example of cell
differentiation in an exceptionally complex form. This process is
controlled by awide variety of factors both exogenous (photoperiod and
temperature) and endogenous (phytohormones) and byinteraction between
them. It is driven by the coordinated expression of numerous
structural genes (some of known function) involved in cellorigination,
differentiation, programmed cell death, and heartwood (HW) formation
and by virtually unknown regulatory genes orches trating this ordered
developmental sequence. The presence of gene families and the extreme
plasticity of the metabolism involved (as exemplified by the unusual
behavior of plants with transformed cell walls; for review, seeFagard
et al., 2000) add a further complexity to our understanding of the
process of wood formation.3
The extraordinary creation in wood is emphasized thus in another
scientific journal, Annals of Botany:
Wood formation is a highly complicated process involving an
unbelievable variety of metabolic steps in the roots, stem and crown
of shrubs and trees. At the centre of these processes is cambial
activity which results in the release of young woody cells that
undergo maturation until autolysis of the protoplast, indicating the
final developmental stage. Later on, in various tree species, woody
cells become further modified by an additional process calledheartwood
formation. The properties of wood that make it an appropriate raw
material for many purposes are largely determined by the specific
architecture of the cell walls. Difficulties in investigating these
many developmental stages appear when routine techniques, which work
well for soft plant tissues, are applied. Therefore, in most cases,
these techniques need modification or the use of completely revised
protocols to yield good results for woody tissues.4
These details in the creation of wood remind us, as set out in Surat
al-Waqi 'a, that wood cannot be made by human beings. Just a few of
the inimitable features of wood, which cannot be produced
artificially, are as follows:
Wood, a Resistant Material
The hard and resistant nature of wood is the result of the cellulose
fibers it contains. Because cellulose is hardand insoluble in water.
Itis this property of cellulose that makes the use of wood in
construction so advantageous. Cellulose, described as a "contractible
and incomparable substance," has for centuries been used a great deal
more than other materials in keeping wooden buildings standing, other
buildings, bridges and many other structures.
Wood consists of parallelcolumns made up of convex cells laid end to
end. These are surrounded by cellulose fibers in spiral form. In
addition, these cells are contained in "lignin," a substance made from
a complex, polymer structure resin. These spirally enclosed layers
make up 80% of the thickness of the cell wall and are the part
bearingthe main load. When a wood cell collapses internally it absorbs
the shock of a blow by detatching itself from the surrounding cells.
Even when such collapses causes a crack along the length of the fiber,
the wood remains unharmed. That is why wood is strong enough to bear
specific loads even if it is broken.
In terms of absorbing the energy of low-speed blows and reducing the
damage therefrom, wood is a most important material. The Second World
War planeknown as the "Mosquito" was made bycompressing wood between
strips of fiber board, making it the most damage-resistant plane of
its time. The hardness and resistant nature of wood make it a very
reliable material. Because wood breaks or cracks slowly enough to be
visible from the outside, and that gives people enough time to take
the necessary precautions .5
A material based on the structure of wood can be up to 50 times more
resistant than other synthetic materials in use today.6This unique
structure of wood is today used in materials developed to protect
against the impact of high speed and destructive fragments such as
bombs and bullets. But scientists have never been able to replicate a
piece of wood with all its many attributes. Every detail inthe
creation of wood, - the thickness of the internal layers, their level
of compression, thenumber of vessels, their layout and the materials
inside it, have been specialy created to resultin that resistance.
The Hydraulic System That Raises Water Many Meters against the Force of Gravity
The dead part of wood, the "xylem," contains hollow channels. These,
also known as "wood vessels," consist of inanimate cells that
gradually lose their nuclei and cytoplasms piled one on top of the
other. Long, thin wood vessels form when the membranes between
thecells dissolve and disappear.
Roots spreading out beneath the soil carry the water and minerals the
plant needs upward through these tissues and transmit them as far as
the leaves. The way the roots absorb the water in the ground is
literally reminiscent of the test bore technique. The roots have no
engines to initiate the water absorption process. Neither do they have
any technical equipment with which to pump water and minerals for
distances of up to several meters. Butthe roots absorb the water in
the depths of the soil by spreading over a very wide area.
This lifting process that the plant performs so flawlessly is in fact
an exceedingly complex one. Yet this system has still not yet been
fully understood, even in these days of high technology and space
travel. The present of a "hydraulic system: in plants was determined
some two centuries ago. But we still do not know how this action in
defiance of the force of gravity takes place. The superior technology
squeezed into such a confined space is just one of the examples
demonstrating the incomparable knowledge of our Lord the creator of
the system. Like everything in the universe, AlmightyAllah created the
transportation system in trees.
7
As seen in the picture to the left,wood consists of tube or
straw-shaped cells. By combining one on top of the other, these cells,
which make up the roots and trunks of plants, serve as channels that
carry water and minerals right through the plant. This tisue, known as
"xylem," also constitutes a powerful structure that enables the plant
to remain upright. To the right can be seen a slice of dry wood in
cross-section. Whendried out, the tube-like channelsbecome hollow, as
shown in theillustration.
Roots Capable of Selecting Minerals from the Soil:
Plants draw all the mineral nutrients they need, such as
potassium,phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sulfur, from the soil.
Since the substances are not found seprately in the soil, they absorb
them asions (positive/negativelycharged atoms). Of all the many
inorganic ions in dissolved state in the soil, plants absorb only the
14 they need.
The iron concentration inside plant cells is 1,000 times greater than
that in the soil outside.8Under normal condition, an exchange of
matter from a high density region to a lower density one will take
place. But exactly the opposite happens in plant roots, and the ions
in the soil are easily ableto pass into the root cells.9
Because of this state of affairs that operates contrary to the
pressure system, the plant uses a high level of energy in the pumping
process. In addition, in the plant roots' taking up ions from the
soil, there needs to be an identification system that attracts only
the wanted ions and repels the unwanted ones. This shows that the ion
pumps in the root cells are no ordinary pumps, but possess the ability
toselect between ions. Bearing in mind that thecell in the plant roots
aremade up of atoms devoid of any intelligence or consciousness, one
can better see what an extraordinary process ion selection truly is.
Photosynthesis: The Superior Technology in aMiniature Factory
It is not only the wood and root parts of trees that cannot be
obtained by artificial means, but also the leaves. Most important of
the features that make leaves inimitable is their ability to make
photosynthesis. Photosynthesis, one of the systems that scientists
still do not fullyunderstand, may be summarized as plants
manufacturing their own nutrients. Thanks tothe structure in plant
cells that makes them able to make direct use of solar energy, they
store solar energy, at theend of various complex processes, in the
form of energy that can be used by human beings and animals. In
addition, the photosynthetic energy stored in trees is also given off
during burning. For example, the energy emitted by wood burned to heat
a house is actually energy from the Sun stored during the formation of
wood.10
The photosynthesis system, which operates like a miniature factory,
takes place in an organelle known as the "chloroplast" inside the
plant cell that gives the plant its green color. Chloroplasts are just
one-thousandth of a millimeter in size, for which reason they can only
be seen under the microscope. When solar energy falls on the leaf they
transmit it to the layers inside it. Chlorophyls inside the
choloplasts in the leaf cells convert this light energy into chemical
energy. The plant obtaining this chemical energy immediately usesit in
obtaining nutrients.It took scientists until the mid-20thcentury to
obtain this information summarized in just a fewlines here. Pages of
chain reactions are written to describe the whole process of
photosynthesis. But some links in the chain are still unknown. Yet
plants have been performing these processes uninterruptedly for
hundreds of millions of years, thus providing theEarth with food and
oxygen.
The chloroplast shown magnified in the illustration above is in fact
just one-thousandth of a millimeter in size. It contains many
organelles that assist with the process of photosynthesis.
Photsynthesis, which takes placein many stages, not all of which are
yet understood, takes place at high speed in these microscopic
factories.
The fact that not a singlecell constituting wood can be made by
artificialmeans, and human beings' helplessness in the face of dead
wood cells, shows the presece of a sublime Creator. Theproperties of
wood, about which many volumes could be written, their countless
aspects that so inspire scientists, all reveal the sublime knowledge
and intellect behind the creation of wood. This intelligence and
knowledge manifested in wood belongs to Almighty Allah, the Creator
and sole Lord of all things.
___________________________________________________
1 http://www.forestpathology.org /wood.html; Wood Chemistry and Anatomy, 2005.
2 http://www.forestresearch.gov. uk/fr/INFD-6FMCUS; The
ResearchAgency of the Forestry Commission, 2007.
3 Christophe Plomion, Gregoire Leprovost, Alexia Stokes, "Wood
Formation in Trees",Plant Physiology, December 2001, Vol. 127, pp.
1513–1523.
4 Uwe Schmitt, "Chaffey, N.J. ed. Wood formation in trees—cell and
molecular biology techniques",Annals of Botany, 2002, Vol. 90, no. 4,
pp. 545-546.
5 Julian Vincent, "Tricks of Nature",New Scientist, 17 August 1996,
Vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 39.
6 Julian Vincent, "Tricks of Nature",New Scientist, 17 August 1996,
Vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 40.
7 http://www.smddrums.com /woodcell.htm
8 Malcolm Wilkins,Plantwatching, Facts on File Publications, New York,
1988, p. 119.
9 William K. Purves, Gordon H. Orions, H. Craig Heller, Life,The
Science of Biology, 4th edition, W.H. Freeman and Company, p. 724.
10 http://www.montana.edu /wwwpb/pubs/mt8405.html; Michael Vogel,
"Heating with Wood: Principles of Combustion", 2003.

26 The People of the Garden are the Same Age: - (Jannah: The Garden from the Qur'an and Hadith) -

The fact that the people of the Garden are the same age is a great
blessing from Allah. Among people without deen, difference in age
often leads to discord and lack of communication. People often form
groups of persons of the same age in order to feel more relaxed among
themselves. Of course, this ought not to apply to Muslims. No matter
what age they may be, Muslims should understand one another very well
and form friendships with people of any age, older or younger than
themselves. The fact thatMuslims in the Garden are created the same
age as one another is another wonderful blessing from Allah. The
Messenger of Allah said that the age of the people of the Garden will
never change throughout eternity:
Whoever of the People of the Garden die, whether while young or old,
will be turned into young people of thirty years of age in the Garden,
never growing older than that. And thus will be the inmates of the
Fire… (Narrated by Abu Sa'id, Sunan Ibn Majah; at-Tirmidhi)
Another verse of the Qur'an points out that in the Garden the
believers'wives will be the same age as them:
We have brought maidens into being and made them purest virgins,
devoted, passionate, of like age. (Surat al-Waqi'a: 35-37)
...They will have Gardens with rivers flowing under them, remaining in
them timelessly, for ever and ever. Allah is pleased with them and
they are pleased with Him. That is the Great Victory. (Surat
al-Ma'ida: 119)
Everything in the universe reflects Allah's infinite power and eternal
wisdom. He has created everything in this world as a test and events
in it ordinarily occur according to the laws of cause and effect that
human reason can grasp. So, when someone sees a fruit, he or she has
no doubt that it came from a seed that grew into a tree, bush orplant
which in turn yielded the fruit. According to the custom of Allah in
His creation, this is the cause of the fruit in this world. However,
it must be remembered that, if Allah wished, He could create the whole
universe independent ofcauses. Allah can create what He wants whenever
He wants without depending on any logical pattern and without the need
for any substance to create from. People should not be deceived by the
fact that in this world everything appears to depend on certain causes
and natural laws. As the Creator of all causes, Allah is completely
free of them. In the Garden creation will be freed from its need for
causes, and so afruit picked from a tree will immediately be replaced
by another, without any loss or decrease. Allah creates both causes
and effects. For example, when we look at the shade under a tree, we
know it is caused by the angle of the sun's rays. Light and shade are
effects of the sun, but Allah makes the sun the cause of light and
shade. This is revealed in the Qur'an:
Do you not see how your Lord stretches out shadows? If He had wished
He could have made them stationary. Then We appoint the sun to be the
pointer to them. Then We draw them back to Ourselves in gradual steps.
(Surat al-Furqan: 45-46)
It is as a result of the artistry of Allah that everything in this
world is created in a seeming cause-effect relationship. He can create
anything in a moment and in the form that He wants, or turn it into
any shape He desires. Allah created theuniverse from nothing, and, at
any time He desires He can dissolve the laws – the causes and effects
– that we struggle to grasp. In the Garden, faithful Muslims may ask
for anything they think will please them and, as soon as they ask for
it, they will have it, if Allah wills. Both they themselves and their
surroundings will be in the shape and form that they desire;
everything they desire will be granted and theywill live amid the
blessings that will give them the most delight and joy. This will not
be in order to supply any need, make up for a deficiency or repair a
flaw; it will be a wonderful blessing fromAllah simply for the delight
of the people of the Garden, and Allah knows best.
... You will have there all that your selves could wish for. You will
have there everything you demand.
(Surah Fussilat: 31)
Here is an example of this from the hadith:
A man asked the Prophet , "Messenger of Allah, are there any horses in
the Garden?" He replied: "If Allah makes you enter the Garden, if you
wish to ride in it on a horse made of red ruby that will fly you
wherever you wish you will do so." At this, another man asked,
"Messenger of Allah, are there any camels in the Garden?" but he did
not reply as he had to the first man. He said "If Allah makes you
enter the Garden you will find everything your self desires and that
is pleasing to your eye." (At-Tirmidhi; Al-Hafiz ibn ad-Dayba ash-
Shaybani, Taysir al-usul ila Jami al-usul, p. 431/14)
The everything your self desires and that is pleasing to your eye
mentioned in the hadith is not limited by this world's limitations or
our imaginations. In the Qur'an, Allah calls our attention to the
richness of His blessings: "… they will have there all that their
hearts desire and their eyes find delight in…" (Surat az-Zukhruf:
71)Other verses that tell us about this are the following:
… You will have there all that your selves could wish for. You will
have there everything you demand. (Surah Fussilat: 31)
… They will remain theretimelessly, for ever, among everything their
selves desire. (Surat al-Anbiya': 102)
There are many things we desire to do in this world but cannot do,
because of lack of time or because there is a riskinvolved. For
example, many people like dangerous sports such asdriving fast cars or
motorcycles, spending hours deep-sea diving orskiing on high
mountainslopes or sky-diving from great heights, but these are all
sports that put a person's life at risk.
Others want to play a musical instrument skilfully or wish they hada
special talent for painting. Besides talent, such things require
expertise and long periods of training. In the Garden, a person
canhave anything he wants and so he can even have the possibility to
do these things whenever he wants without any effort and without the
need for any talent, and Allah knows best.
Allah, exalted is He, in the Qur'an, and the Messenger of Allah tell
usthat everything the heart desires is possible if Allah wills.
Therefore, a person can enjoy unimaginable things in the next life
that are impossible to attain in this world. For example, it is not
possible in this world to fly on a horse but we are told in the hadith
that this is possible in the Garden. In one hadith the Messenger of
Allah says that people can fly if they want to:
If you are intended for the Garden and say "I would like to ride a
horse of red ruby," you will do so. If you say youwish to fly, you
will fly. (Ahmad Diya ad-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al- Ahadith,
vol. 1, p. 149/5)
In another hadith, the Prophet spoke about theabundance of the
blessings in the Garden:
The Messenger of Allah said that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious,
said: "I have prepared for My slaves which no eye has seen, no ear
hasheard and has never occurred to a human heart …" (Narrated by Abu
Hurayra, Sahih Muslim, vol. 4)

25 Eternal Youth in the Garden: - (Jannah: The Garden from the Qur'an and Hadith) -

Those who are remote from the teachings of the Qur'an are even afraid
of growing old while young. They think about the sickness and
helplessness that old agebrings and are worried about whether or not
there will be someone tolook after them when they get to that point.
There are many people who have such anxieties,who look pessimistically
towards old age.
Gardens of Eden, whose gates will be open to them, where they will
recline, calling for plentiful fruit and drink; and there will be
dark-eyed maidens with them with eyes reserved for them alone. This is
what you are promised on the Day of Reckoning. (Surah Sâd: 50-53)
Beginning in our 20's cell renewal in our bodies slows down and our
skin starts to lose its former elasticity. With the passing years the
effects of ageing become visible. This worries people. They sorrow as
they watch their youth slip away. Of course, this scenario applies to
people who have no iman. Believers submit to Allah in all the
illnesses and weaknessesthey may encounter in this transitory world;
as an act of worship they accept everything that happens to them and,
unlike those who have no deen, they live their lives without regret or
fear and anxiety. Moreover, they realise that the good things of this
world are intrinsically flawed and that the real life is the timeless
life of the worldto come. And they make every effort hoping to attain
the Garden.
Life in this world is fleeting and temporary. Allah has already
createdall the real blessings of the Garden, just as He has already
created the torments of the Fire. On the Last Day He will grant the
blessings to Hisfaithful slaves. People in the Garden will always be
young, attractive, healthy and robust.
Ageless youths will circulate among them,serving them. Seeing them,
you would thinkthem scattered pearls. (Surat al-Insan: 19)
No matter how long an individual may live within the limitations of
this life, no matter how late the signs of ageing appear, and no
matter how healthy he is, his life will certainly come to an end one
day. However, Allah points out in the Qur'an as doesthe Prophet that
eternal youth will be one of the blessings of the Garden:
The people of the Garden will enter the Garden hairless on their
bodies, beardless and dark-eyed, aged thirty or thirty-three years
old. (Narrated by Mu'adh ibn Jabal, at-Tirmidhi)
The thirties are the best time of life when the personality matures
and facial features, and the manner of speaking and acting become
established. But we mustnot forget that youthful vigour in the Garden
is not the same as it is in this world. That is because under earthly
conditions even a youngperson can live in great helplessness.
Allah has made a new creation in the Hereafterfor the inmates of the
Garden without any flawor imperfection. In the Qur'an, Allah tells us
about this and in particular how the people of the Garden will be
served by eternally young people:
Ageless youths will circulate among them, serving them. Seeing them,
you would think them scattered pearls. (Surat al- Insan: 19)