The human body: A carefully protected fortress

We can compare the human body to a fortress under attack. Just as the
defense of a fortress besieged by enemies is very well planned, so the
human body hasa perfect defense system.
No matter how clean ourenvironment may be, weshare our living space
with many microorganisms. If you could examine with a microscope the
room you are now sitting in, you would clearly see the millions of
creatures you are living with.
So, in this sense, a human being is a besieged fortress. It
goeswithout saying that to protect this fortress under assault a
failsafe plan is necessary. Humanbeings were created with the perfect
protection that they need; they are not defenseless against these
enemies. God Almighty has created micro defense systems inthe human
body, protecting it from all sorts of dangerous organisms and fighting
to defend it on multiple fronts.
Invasion forces have to cross the first lines of defense. Even thought
the first line of defense may suffer setbacks, it will give the enemy
a hard time and reduce its invasion ability.
Deterrents Waiting for Micro-enemies
The first front that the enemy must pass in the human body is our
skin. The skin covers the whole body like a sheathand has many special
features. One of the vital features of this miraculous packaging is
its ability to protect the body from the micro-enemies that make the
body sick. If we accept that the body is like a besieged fortress, we
can say that the skin, with its outer layers of dead cells and the
creatures that live on it, is the strong ramparts ofthis fortress.
One of the ways in which microorganisms reach us is through our
breathing. Every moment there are hundreds of different kinds of germs
in the air we breathe waiting to enter our bodies. But they are
unaware of the nasal guards to repel them. A special secretionin the
mucosa of the nose traps and expels between 80% and 90% of the
microorganisms that that enter the respiratory system eitherdirectly
or through dust, vapor or other carriers.
Germs can also enter the body through the food we eat. But our body's defense
system is aware of this route and waits for the intruders in the
stomach where the food goes. Stomach acid destroys most if not all of
the germs that manage to overcome all the other obstacles and reach
the stomach. The germs that make it through the stomach are destroyed
by digestive enzymes produced in the small intestine.
The Truth Revealed by our Defense System
There are some important questions thathave to be asked in the light
of all these facts.
Who drives these external microbes to entering our bodies through our
food? Who decides the route the food follows, what kind of a system
must destroy the microbes, what will the microbes' next target if they
escape thisdeterrent, and what alternatives they take if they
encounter a more powerful substance? Body cells have never been
outside the body and so have not had the opportunity to examine the
chemical structure ofthese external microbes, nor have they ever
studied chemistry. So how do they know whatsubstances will kill the
microbes?
Indeed, Allah, the Lord ofthe heavens and Earth, created such a
non-sleeping defense system protecting the human body surroundedby
microbes like a besieged castle. In a verse, Allah describes His
wisdom of perfect creation as follows:
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. (Qur'an, 59:24)
We must remember that the human body is helplessly exposed to microbes
24 hours a day.The fact that you are able at this moment to read this
text without being adversely affectedby the microbes around you, is
due to the operation of the defensesystem inside your body inspired by
our AlmightyLord. It must also be remembered that Allah has specially
created germs and viruses to remind us of our helplessness against
these minute structures entering a human body and making it sick and
even cause its death.