PHYSIOLOGY BLOOD CIRCULATION AND MILK

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:

“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]1

“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]

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