Friday, June 27, 2014
I read an article which gave me pause for thought, in which it says that Noor Al-Deen Al-Shaheed used air mail when he was the governor of Syria and Egypt.
Scientists say that the homing pigeon or carrier pigeon, of which there are more than five hundred species, is distinguished by its keen intelligence, great ability to fly and strong instinct by which it is guided to its home, and it is of a gentle temperament.
Allah, the Almighty, says:
“And We have subdued them unto them.” (Soorah Ya Seen, 36:72)
Who has subdued these birds? Who has made them so intelligent, with such a great ability to fly and with such an instinct that guides them to their home? Who has made it so gentle in temperament that it is friendly toward man, and serves him and is subjugated to him?
This bird – the homing pigeon or carrier pigeon – can cover a distance of one thousand kilometers in a continuous flight traveling at the rate of one kilometer per minute, or sixty kilometers per hour. This pigeon produces nine pairs of squabs per year, and it helps humans transmit messages over long distances, and it manages to reach its destination in a comparatively short period of time.
Sultan Noor Al-Deen used pigeons to send messages between Damascus and Cairo, as the mail was sent via pigeon, and the name of the Sultan was engraved on the beaks of these birds. He had a special kind of paper which was used for sending messages; it was relatively light. The Sultan used two thousand pigeons to transmit messages between him and his governors in the various regions.
But there is a huge mystery that is still puzzling researchers: how does this pigeon that Allah, the Exalted, has created, find its way home? What method does it use? Scientists wonder: how does the pigeon finds its way during its lengthy journey? Do not forget that the pigeon is regarded as the first news agency in history, and it has been used by all peoples, the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the Arabs, and in all eras. They have been used to send messages and transmit news. They were used by some Western nations, such as Holland, to send commands to their bases in Sumatra, and they reached Southeast Asas, covering a distance of approximately seventeen thousand kilometers. But the question that still puzzles thinking minds is: how does this bird navigate these great distances in which even the smartest pilot is unable to find the route by visual means alone, and he needs signals, coordinates, maps and continual transmission of messages to tell him of his location? It is a long way from Western Europe to Southeast Asia; how can a small bird deliver a message to this distant place? How does the sense that guides this bird function?
Scientists say that the bird is guided to its destination by something that we do not know or understand. Some scientists think that the features of the Earth are imprinted in the bird’s mind, and it recognizes them and navigates by them. This is one theory, but another scientist came along and disproved this theory by blindfolding a pigeon and releasing it, and it found its way home. So what about those features and that memory? Even though it was blindfolded, it found its way home. So much for that theory.
Another theory is that the bird navigates by using the sun. But how can it fly at night and how can it find its way home if it flies at night? So this theory was also proved wrong.
A third theory is that there is a kind of radar in the bird’s brain by which it navigates, so scientists placed a small electrical device on the bird’s head which emitted electrical signals, in a bid to confuse the bird, but it still found its way home.
Then they thought that it navigates by using the Earth’s magnetic field, so they placed some magnetized metal rings on the bird’s legs in order to disturb the magnetic field, but it still found its way home. So they have no theory left that has not been disproved. So how does this bird cover thousands of miles, flying over the sea and the desert, mountains and valleys? How does it find the right direction? This is a secret that still puzzles scientists.
Allah says:
“Fir‘awn (Pharaoh) said: ‘Who then, O Moosa, is the Lord of you two? Moosa said: ‘Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright’.” (Soorah Ta-Ha, 20:49-50)
The soundest explanation of this matter is that it has to do with the guidance of Allah, the Exalted. Allah says:
“Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High, Who has created (everything), and then proportioned it, and Who has measured (preordainments for everything even to be blessed or wretched); and then guided (i.e. showed mankind the right as well as the wrong paths, and guided the animals to pasture).” (Soorah Al-A‘la, 87:1-3)
Hence, Islamic scholars regarded this matter, which puzzles scientists, as guidance from Allah, the Exalted, while the biologists call it “instinct”, which is a complex mechanism that exists in some creatures without any prior learning; it represents remarkable actions that the animal does in a certain sequence without having learned them.
Al-‘Ijaz Al-‘Ilmi by Dr. An-Nabulsi
[from “Scientific Miracles in the Oceans & Animals” by “Yusuf Al-Hajj Ahmad”, published by Darussalam, 2010]
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