the co-responsiveness of the body during infection

The Co-responsiveness of the Body during InfectionMedical Miracles in the Sunnah

The Co-responsiveness ofthe Body during Infection

Dr. Maher Muhammad SalimConsultant in General Surgery

Medical Miracles in the Sunnah

4Medical Miracles in the Sunnah

5The Co-responsiveness ofthe Body during Infection

Table of contents

• Foreword 7

• Introduction 11

Chapter One: Signals emitted from the location of injury

15

• The Hypothalamus 18

• The Reticular Formation 24

• The Cerebral Cortex 25

• The various breakdowns and responses of the body 26

• The important role played by the kidneys in infection or injury

28

• The role of the heart and circulatory system 30


Chapter Two: Metabolic processes that occur dur-ing infection and injury

33

• Fever that occurs during infection or injury 39

Chapter Three: How the scientific miracle of the Sunnah is deduced

49

• References 57


Foreword

Dr. Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Muslih

General Secretary of the International Commissionon Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the noblest messenger, Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and companions and those who follow them in goodness until the Day of Judgment.

The study of scientific miracles in the Quran and Sunnah is a novel approach, a unique gateway to the heart that penetrates via the logical belief in scien-tific facts, especially for non-Muslims who have faith in the modern language of science.

Scientific miracles in the Quran and Sunnah amount to legitimacy for the Muslims. They are also a medium for Muslims to employ their creative men-tal capabilities and an important channel for calling to Allah in this time. They are therefore a means for advancement for the Muslims and for fulfilling their universal mission.

This is why the International Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and the Sunnah, in association with


a large number of specialized researchers and scientists from inside and outside of the Commission, lays focus on systematically and authentically documenting scientific research.

The Commission’s mission is to reveal the untar-nished truth and to serve as a bridge of communica-tion, undertaking a humanitarian service by carrying out timeless research in areas that benefit others and affirm to the world that Islam is a religion of knowl-edge, a religion that seeks truth, encourages creativ-ity, and seeks to attain the means for civilization and material advancement in order to achieve a balanced, decent life wherein knowledge serves and helps oth-ers and produces security and safety instead of be-ing used as a tool for mass destruction. {Indeed, this Qur’an guides to that which is most suitable and gives good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds, that they will have a great reward.} [Quran 17: 9]

This book, The Co-responsiveness of the Body dur-ing Infection: Medical Miracles in the Sunnah, exam-ines the Hadith where the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, concisely describes what takes place in the body, using a short, conditional sentence, saying that on condition that the body ails (or complains), then the result is that it will co-respond (or break down).


The Hadith is narrated as follows: The Proph-et, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “The believ-ers, in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion, are like a single body: If one of its organs (or parts) ails (or complains), the entire body re-sponds (or breaks down) with fever and sleepless-ness.” [Muslim 4/1999, Ahmad 4/70]

In this Hadith, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, reveals facts, about what happens in the hu-man body, that have not been discovered until recent years.

This is further evidence that Muhammad, sallal-laahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is a messenger from Allah, one who does not speak out of his own whims but out of en-lightenment and guidance from his Lord, the Almighty, who says in the Quran: {Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed, taught to him by One intense in strength.} [Quran 53: 3-5]

We ask Allah to make this study a benefit for others and to bless the efforts of those involved. Our final prayer is

‘Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds’.


Introduction

Intense and repeated medical research has revealed astonishing facts about how the body interacts when faced with dangers in the event of injury or infection. It has been discovered that there is defensive planning and functional responses in the body that take place when one of the body’s parts become infected or in-jured. These responses are directly proportional to the degree of ailment, so the more severe the infection the more the body will direct its energies and functions to stop the infection from exacerbating and aid in the healing and recovery processes.

The studies carried out by Moore in 1959 and 1963, which comprised what has been discovered of the secrets of those interactions, in addition to the re-sults of the radioactive isotope studies of the various vital body processes, provided a complete picture of how the human body responds to disease and injury.

If we imagine that a healthy adult male, who lives


in a remote area where there are no first aid or medi-cal care units, fell from a high place or was attacked by a wild animal and thus suffered from open wounds and bleeding on one thigh, for example; how would his body respond to this rather severe injury in order to, firstly, save his life and save the injured limb from severe bleeding and infection, and, secondly, for the wound to heal and the muscles to return to their normal func-tions?

Firstly, the process begins from the wound itself, where the tearing of muscle, the opening of blood ves-sels, and the rupturing of the peripheral nerve ends and trunks cause signals and pulsations to be emitted. These signals are distress calls from the location of injury to the various centers of the body. The pulsa-tions travel along a number of axes and converge at main points and neurological and sensory centers that prompt a comprehensive response or an alert to the rest of the vital organs of the body, a process which is called ‘neuroendocrine response’.

Secondly, following that are significant changes in the metabolism and the functions of kidneys and lungs as well as the circulatory and immune systems. The ultimate result is that the body’s energy and organ


functions are redirected to the location of injury, even if it requires that all of the other parts of the body must exert a large part of their reserves and their basic needs of protein and energy in order to ensure that the injured body part will receive enough defence and construction supplies to heal and recover.

As philosophical or literary this introduction may come across, scientific facts confirmed by thorough research are much more emphatic than this introduc-tion, which attempts to portray the realities of what happens every day in millions of human bodies that experience disease or injury.


Chapter One:Signals emitted from the

location of injury

There are three types of signals that are emitted when injury occurs:

1 - Bleeding:

Bleeding causes a sudden drop in blood pressure which alarms the baroreceptors in the walls of the heart, the arteries of the kidneys and the cervical ar-teries. When those receptors are alerted, signals and nerve impulses are emitted to the hypothalamus cen-ter, which we will see is a main receptive station for the various signals and changes that occur in the blood after the injury or infection.


2 - Noradrenaline hormone is released

Noradrenaline is released from the ruptured nerve endings at the site of injury into the circulatory system and travels to the hypothalamus in order to stimulate it, thus meeting the signals previously mentioned in the first paragraph.

3 - The sensation of pain:

As the signals are released from the nerve end-ings in the injury location, they pass through the neural pathways to sensory centers in the brain. From there, reflexes and signals are released from the thalamus and the limbic system, which distributes the signals to the reticular formation and the hypothalamus.

From the above, we can see from points 1, 2, and 3 how ailment from the location of injury comes in the form of signals released from three main axes, all of which converge in the central nervous system in order to alarm the three main brain centers:


1- the hypothalamus

2- the reticular formation

3- the cerebral cortex

The nervous system acts as an alarm


The Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus center is the main reception and transmission station and the link between the auto-nomic nervous system and the endocrine system. It also coordinates and regulates what is called the ‘neu-roendocrine response’.

The responses and reflexes that occur in the hypothalamus:

Firstly, various hormones of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland are emitted. This causes a number of the gland’s hormones to be released, the most impor-tant of which are adrenal cortex stimulant hormone (ACTH), growth hormone, and thyroid stimulant hor-mone (TSH).


Secondly, antidiuretic hormone (ADH) is released from the nerve endings in the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland. The heads of the nerve endings in the hypothalamus are alerted by the release of these hor-mones through the alarms previously mentioned.

Thirdly, the alarm pulses are released from the sympathetic nervous system centers located in the brain stem. The most important of these are the cardi-ac accelerator centers, the vasomotor accelerator cen-ters and the adrenal medulla. The pulses are released in order to secrete adrenaline and noradrenaline in abundance.

Fourthly, as a response to the sensation of pain or injury, endorphins and enkephalins are secreted within the different regions of the nervous system and in the spinal cord. These chemicals have an anesthetic and soothing effect some eighteen to thirty times greater than morphine. Despite having a clear role during in-fection and injury, it has yet to be ascertained, but it was concluded after observation that these substances had an anesthetic effect on pain. This helps calm panic and confusion the injured person experiences due to


the intense pain that could cause shock, which could cause the injured person to lose the ability to produce a normal motor response and counter the risk of inju-ry during combat or escape. This can be observed dur-ing war, for example, as the high proportion of these chemicals in combatants can cause a total loss of pain even when serious injuries are inflicted.


The neural signals move great distances to reachthe motor centers.


Responses and interactions resulting from the above-mentioned responses:

First: Adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) stimulates the adrenal gland to produce an abundant amount of cortisone and aldosterone hormones. The cortisone activates the adrenal medulla to secrete adrenaline with the result of increase of the following hormones:

1- Cortisone

2- Adrenaline

3- Aldosterone

These three hormones have important effects in directing metabolic reactions as well as directing kidney functions in regulating salt generation, which we will discuss later.

Second: Antidiuretic hormone directs the chan-nels that converge at the kidney to reabsorb as much of the water as possible that leaks into it with urine and return it to the blood circulation, thereby preserving the body water from being lost with urine.


Third: When the sympathetic nervous system is alerted, the peripheral blood vessels contract and heartbeat accelerates and its pumping power is in-creased, bringing the blood pressure to the level re-quired for blood to flow in vital organs, in spite of blood potentially decreasing as a result of bleeding or seepage.

In addition, with the abundant secretion of adrena-line and noradrenaline, many important metabolic re-actions go through changes, which will be mentioned later.


The Reticular Formation

The responses resulting from the alerting of the limbic system and the reticular formation is pivotal for the human body to counter intensified conditions and different pressures that are experienced from infection or otherwise. Through the signals sent from the cere-bral cortex, the reticular formation is alerted and then prompts and secures the following activities:

1- Attaining full attention and constant alertness of the cerebral cortex

2- Alerting the sympathetic nervous system and in-creasing muscle tension and sensitivity (or, excitabil-ity), resulting in sleeplessness of the body and the mind during infection or injury


The Cerebral Cortex

The responses resulting from the alerting of the cerebral cortex when the detection of infection or in-jury in a body part reaches the cerebral cortex occur as follows:

1- The various centers are alerted and directed as mentioned above.

2- The cerebral cortex sends signals to the brain’s memory regions, to call on previous experience, and to the thinking regions, in order to make prop-er decisions with regard to the infection or injury. (Evidence for this is that people with experience and who have gone through training behave differ-ently than people who had never been exposed to the infection or injury before. This behavior is not only in relation to the body’s voluntary systems but also to the involuntary nervous systems in humans, animals and some lower organisms, which demon-strates the value of memory and past experience as well as the value of summoning them to direct the body’s behavior in case of infection or injury.)


The various breakdowns and responses of the body

The above description of what happens in the main axes of the nervous system (the hypothalamus, the neurohormonal axis, the cerebral cortex, the reticular formation and the autonomic nervous system) is one of the response stages of the entire human body. When these regions are alerted, different impulses (neuro-logical and hormonal) are emitted to all organs of the body so that each organ, and possibly each cell in the human body, plays a role and function in countering the infection or injury affecting the organ whose function is disrupted or threatened.


Nucleus hydroxytamoxifen

Estradiol

Ligand

Intercellular messages to transmit instructions


The important role played by the kidneys in infection or injury

1) The kidneys keep sodium and water from being lost by reducing production to the lowest possible lev-els. This reduction is an effect of the essential hor-mones: antidiuretic hormone, which helps preserve water; and aldosterone, which helps preserve so-dium.

2) The kidneys contribute to the production of aldo-sterone by secreting renin that converts the hor-mone angiotensin I, which is secreted by the liver, into angiotensin II, which stimulates the adrenal cortex to produce large amounts of aldosterone.

3) The kidneys contribute in excreting excess potas-sium that increases during metabolic processes and as a result of the break down of body cells during infection. This is done through an exchange with so-dium absorbed in the distal tubule.


4) The kidneys thus play a role that is required to re-duce the body’s loss of water and sodium. The role of the kidneys in retaining sodium is more impor-tant as sodium is the key element in attaining a bal-ance of water in the blood and fluids outside the cell. This is the essential liquid that permeates the body’s cells and serves as an important exchange medium for all the organs of the body. Any defi-ciency or alteration of it will result in loss of life.


The role of the heart and circulatory system

This role goes without saying or explaining: Blood

1) is the essential medium that transports oxygen and food to the injured body part as well as the other body parts that are active in aiding the injured body part.

2) transmits the hormonal messages between body parts and glands that are in an active state.

3) transmits the different clotting agents to the injured member to stop bleeding that may occur there.

4) transmits many antibodies and immune system cells to counter any foreign bodies or harmful microbes that invade the body during infection or injury.

For a rapid response, the heart is alerted and stim-ulated through the nervous and hormonal systems. Its pulse accelerates and strengthens, doubling the cardiac output rate during infection or injury.


In addition, the vessels of the circulatory system (peripheral arteries, veins and arteries), are constricted in order to:

1- raise blood pressure, which may fall during bleeding

2- retract blood from the peripheral and relatively inert body parts and direct it to the more active body parts.

3- quickly and temporarily compensate for whatever fluid and blood cells are missing.


Chapter Two:Metabolic processes that occur

during infection and injuryMetabolic Responses

Metabolic processes

These reactions occur rapidly and actively. They are directed to counter the infection or injury, and are regulated by neural and hormonal signals as previously described. We will see that they include all body parts, even the healthy cells of the body.

Due to the body’s need for high amounts of en-ergy during infection or injury, metabolic reactions are directed at providing the energy needed for the follow-ing uses:

1) Preserving the integrity of the cells surrounding the injury and the cells that become infected and swell due to excess quantities of water that result from


the membranes becoming deficient in salt permea-bility. The cells thus require a great deal of energy to eject sodium along with excess water and keep po-tassium inside. This process is called ‘sodium pump’. It is an active process that requires high amounts of the chemical energy which is stored in the mol-ecules of triple adenosine (ATP).

2) Providing the energy needed to complete construc-tion and breakdown interactions and healing, which include forming new protein molecules. This can only occur if large amounts of energy are available.

3) Stimulating the immune system to resist microbes that have invaded the affected body part. Coun-tering this invasion requires increased activity of the phagocytes, other microbe-ingestion processes called phagocytosis, and antibody production pro-cesses.

4) Providing the energy needed for the hyperactiv-ity that occurs in various organs of the body for fighting disease. This includes the heart muscle, the activity of the kidneys in retaining water and salts, the activity of the liver in breaking down various substances, the hyperactivity of intestines in ab-sorbing protein and food, and the hyperactivity of


the muscles due to tension. Thus, the entire body requires an increased degree of activity and there-fore requires more energy to be produced.

In order to provide this energy, the various hor-mones that are secreted in the neurohormonal re-sponse cooperate. The most important of these hor-mones are:

Cortisone

Adrenaline

Noradrenaline

Glucagon

Growth hormone

Cortisone acts to provide the blood with glucose from various sources in the body, especially through its breaking down effect on muscle proteins for secretion of lactic acid, alanine and branched-chain amino acids such as leucine, isoleucine, and valine. It also breaks down fats to produce glycerin and stimulates increased secretion of adrenaline, noradrenaline and glucagon.


Adrenaline and glucagon break down the glyco-gen stored in the liver and muscles to provide glucose molecules. They also break down fat into glycerin and fatty acids in a process called lipolysis. The hormones mentioned above thus combine to create an extensive breaking down process that reaches the storage of car-bohydrates, fats and proteins in order to provide large amounts of:

1- Glucose2- Fatty acids3- Glycerin4- Amino acidsGlucose provides direct benefit in producing high

energy particles that come in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ADP) molecules.

The fatty acids, glycerin and amino acids either produce ADP molecules by introducing their primary molecules in the Krebs cycle reactions or they are con-verted to glucose in the liver in a process called gluco-neogenesis. The amino acids are also used to build new immune proteins (antibodies and defensive cells) and to manufacture connective tissue molecules required for the process of healing the injured body part.

A true battle of specialized cells against the attacking body

White blood cells respond by moving tothe injury location

Polymorphonuclear leucocyte with lopulated nucleas and barr

body (arrowed )

Light micrograph of wholecell from blood smear


Fever that occurs duringinfection or injury

The definition of fever

Blood temperature rises from the normal level of 36.6-37.2 °C, and it remains fixed along these lines through a specialized center in the hypothalamus cen-ters. These centers contain special nerve cells that have receptors for sensing the temperature of the blood. If the blood is warmer than usual, some of the cells there will react by decreasing the heat. When they sense this, they send signals to the muscles and the walls of the arteries and veins beneath the skin, so that the mus-cles will relax and the blood’s surface micro vessels will swell. There will also be an increased secretion of sweat that evaporates, lowering blood temperature near the surface of the skin. Also, a decrease occurs in the ther-mal energy arising from the increased muscle activity. When the temperature reduction centers are alarmed, the person senses the heat and is prompted to reduce clothing and seek a cooler environment. Oppositely, when the body senses cold, heat is produced sending


signals to induce muscle contraction and chills. The sur-face blood vessels also contract, perspiration decreases and the hairs on the skin become erect. Thus, the tem-perature continues to rise and its loss on the skin’s sur-face decreases; in addition to the sensation of coldness, causing the person to seek covers and warmer places.

These minute processes, to adjust the tempera-ture of the blood to a temperature stable and suitable for the body’s cell functions and vital processes to a normal rate, occur as the sensations felt by the cells in the temperature-regulating regions of the brain are adjusted to sense the change in blood temperature when it drops below 36.5 °C or rises above 37.5 °C. If there is a change in the degree of sensitivity of those cells so that they take notice only when the scope is higher (for example, 38.5 - 39 °C), then they will take the necessary measures to raise the temperature to that point, and they will operate at 37.5 °C as if it is a low temperature. Thus, the heat gaining centers will be alerted and raise the blood temperature. This explains the chills that occur before the rise of temperature in the event of fever. The chills remain until the blood reaches the new temperature which was adjusted by the temperature centers (39 °C, for instance).


Fever occurs in the event of infection, whether caused by injury or invasion of microbes or an internal disease, such as cancer, for example. The cause of fever originates in the body itself and from the location of infection. The engulfment of phagocytes and other de-fensive cells around the injured or diseased part and their interactions in different inflammatory processes against microbes and harmful foreign bodies cause an increase in matter called pyrogens, which are released from leukocytes and the tissue of the infected member.

What pyrogens do:

Pyrogens travel in the blood to temperature con-trol centers in the brain, affecting cells there in a way that adjusts the sensitivity to the change in blood tem-perature so that the centers are alerted at a tempera-ture higher than normal. (Such a temperature varies, depending, firstly, on the body’s and the immune sys-tem’s response to the infection, and, secondly, on the type of disease or degree of injury, as evidenced by the lack of temperature increase in stronger individuals.) This occurs in injured people whose immune systems have deteriorated. That is, fever occurs as part of the interaction of the human body to cope with infection


or injury, as has recently been proven by science. Be-fore, it was believed that the fever occurred due to the impact of the disease inside the body (external pyrogens).

The benefits of fever:

Science has not been able to fully comprehend the benefits of fever. The full role secretly played by fever has yet to be revealed.

• So what are the benefits that have been revealed?

• Does the fever have an effect consistent with the responses of the other body parts during infec-tion or injury?

First: Chemistry confirms that the higher the am-bient temperature of interactions, the faster the inter-action will be, and the shorter the time it will take for completion. If the heat drops, the interaction will slow down; and we have seen that in the event of sickness, the body requires acceleration in various metabolic, catabolic and anabolic reactions. Blood and tissue tem-perature become catalysts for stimulating these inter-actions and increasing their speed and quantity.


The rates of metabolism in the event of fever have been calculated and were found to increase by ten percent for every one degree Celsius that the body temperature rises.

Second: We have learned that the body is ex-posed to microbial invasions that predominantly com-prise of viruses in children and bacteria in adults. The bacteria divide and grow in the tissues of the affected area taking advantage of the temporary emergency breakdown that occurs in the immune system during the beginning of the disease. The bacteria secrete tox-ins which have a destructive effect on the cells. If the toxins reach the circulatory system, they can spread to the body and settle in a number of parts. At any rate, the bacteria will divide, multiply and produce toxins. Reproduction is at its highest rate when temperatures are slightly lower than normal body temperature (35 - 37 ° C). During fever, body temperature increases due to the interaction of immune cells with microbes and the secretion of pyrogens, causing the temperature to go up to 38, 39, or 40 ° C. These high temperatures are devastating and constricting to the microbes, whose rate of reproduction and division decreases and whose activity is disrupted. This can cause them to perhaps shrink and die.


Third: The body’s tissues require the maximum amount of oxygen molecules to carry out their active reactions during infection. Oxygen is carried to the tis-sues by hemoglobin in the red blood cells. Hemoglo-bin leaves the tissues and cells only under a certain amount of pressure and under certain conditions. High temperatures modify the rate of separation of oxygen from hemoglobin so that the hemoglobin leaves at a lower pressure and at a greater proportion.

However, we cannot say that all degrees of fever are useful, because brain cells are affected by high tem-peratures (40 ° C and upward) and their functions are disrupted at more than 41 °C. It is impossible for the human body to survive at a temperature higher than 44 °C.

Nevertheless, it is certain that a moderate fever of 38 - 39 °C has a beneficial effect in countering disease, which is a measure for the degree of interaction of the body and for the strength to counter it.

Thus, it is clear how the human body co-responds in order to cope with the infection or injury of one of its organs. We used the words ‘co-response’ and ‘co-responses’ because we could not find another word


more comprehensive in describing what happens in the body during infection or injury.

If we instead used the word ‘interactions’, we would only be describing some of what happens. If we said ‘responses’, we would not then be describing the alarm signals that are, in fact, signs of distress.

Linguistically speaking, co-response (Arabic: tadaa‘a) means a mutual response, which is a description of what happens in the first stages of the infection and injury.

Tadaa‘a, in the sense of involvement, acceleration and direction to a particular place, is actually what hap-pens when all parts of the body, with all vital activities and operations, are directed to serve and aid the in-jured part and increase its resistance.

What happens in the immune system can only be called ‘co-responsiveness’, as just one phagocyte can call on all other cells of the immune system once it comes across a foreign body (i.e. a microbe or foreign cell), and it can even call on them to reproduce, divide and manufacture antibodies.

Tadaa‘a, in the sense of breaking down [which is


another of the word’s meanings in Arabic], describes what happens in the other parts of the body. They break down their proteins and fat supply to give the affected part the necessary energy and constructive material to counter the infection, thus decreasing the weight of the ill person, despite the construction and healing of the injured body part having begun. Then, what was broken down starts to be reconstructed. The rate of breakdown in cases of severe infection or injury accompanied by heavy bacterial infection is called hy-percatabolism, which could lead to a shutdown of the entire body’s functions and lead to loss of life of the entire body with some sicknesses and severe injuries.

Co-responsiveness is attained through sleepless-ness and fever. Sleeplessness [or sahar in Arabic, as mentioned in the Hadith] does not only mean vigilance of the eyes and mind but also of all of the body’s sys-tems, organs, and vital processes, to a point of con-stant activity and continuous sleeplessness. Sleepless-ness in its functional (physiological) sense means that organ activity continues at a time when the organs are supposed to be asleep, which is what happens during infection and injury. This can even happen throughout the night, when the eyes are shut down and the mind


is distracted or sleeping. The body, however, is never in a real state of sleep because all the organs and vital processes are active, as if they were awake. Thus, they do not experience inactivity or slowness during sleep as they do during times of health.

The Messenger of Allah,sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said :

“The believers in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion are like a single body: If one of its organs ails (or complains), the entire body responds (or breaks down)

with fever and sleeplessness.”


Chapter Three:How the scientific miracle of the

Sunnah is deduced

It has been narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “The believers in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion are like a single body: If one of its organs ails (or complains), the entire body responds (or breaks down) with fever and sleepless-ness (sahar).” [Muslim 4/1999, Ahmad 4/70]

How the miracle is deduced

The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, tells the Muslims how they should be in terms of mutual love, mercy and compassion. In order to understand to what degree this relationship should be, the Prophet, sallal-laahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, gave the parable of a single body and what happens when one of its parts ails. He de-scribed that what happens when it ails is that the entire body co-responds (or breaks down) [as tadaa‘a means both of these in Arabic] with sleeplessness and fever for the sake of the ailing part, and that the body con-


tinues to co-respond (or break down) until that part stops ailing.

As the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was given the gift of concise but comprehensive speech, he described for us what happens in a short conditional sentence, with the condition being that when a body part shaka (ails or complains [Arabic root word sh – k – a]), then the result is that the body will tadaa‘a (co-respond or break down).

How the Hadeeth conforms with devel-opments in modern medicine

Scientifically: In this Hadith, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, provides facts about something that happens in the human body that science had not dis-covered until recently.

Did the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, describe something that was unknown to scholars of his time?

We can say: Yes, not only was it unknown in his time but more than thirteen centuries after his time. How?

All of the people of old knew that if a body part was infected, the rest of the body would catch fever. They also used to believe that sleeplessness was an


effect in certain cases, despite the assumption that in other cases the patient would sleep until recovery.

However, the ailing (or complaining) of the body part mentioned in the Hadeeth is literal and not figura-tive. The sleeplessness, firstly, is also literal, and it com-prehends all aspects of literal sleeplessness, as is stated in the text that “the entire body co-responds (or breaks down) in sleeplessness.” Fever, secondly, accompanies the sleeplessness after the sleeplessness begins.

Sleeplessness takes place even if the patient is asleep or in a coma! This is what we understand ac-cording to the apparent meaning of the Hadeeth.(1)

The body breaks down (tadaa‘a). Breaking down happens upon the ailing. If there is no ailing there is no breaking down. “If the body ails...” it co-responds (breaks down).

Linguistically, tadaa‘a (to co-respond) means to draw something to yourself via sound or speech. One says, I called (da’awtu), I call (ad’oo) and to call (du’a). [Maqaayees Al-Lughah 2/279]

It can also come with the meaning of ‘to assemble’,

(1) As-sahar: Sleeplessness, sahira (one could not sleep), saharan (sleeplessness), so one is saahir (not sleeping). He did not sleep at night. Sahar: Failure to sleep at night (Lisaan Al-Arab: vol. 4, p. 383).


as when the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “The nations are about to gather over you as those who eat gather around their dish.” [Narrated by Abu Dawud 3/483 and Ahmad, 5/78] It means that they will gather and invite each other. [Al-Nihaayah fee Ghareeb Al-Hadeeth 2/120]

Tadaa‘a also denotes collapse and breaking down, such as when a person says, tadaa‘at al-heetaan, i.e. ‘the walls have collapsed,’ when the walls have fallen and been destroyed. [An-Nihaayah 2/121]

Does the body part complain literally, or is it figurative?How can it complain without a tongue?Did the people take this complaining to be literal?

By reading scientific discoveries about the release of nervous sensory pulsations from the location of in-jury to the brain and to the sensory and involuntary command centers, and about the emission of chemi-cals and hormones from the sick body part simply by there being a threat to the tissues when the first drop of blood emerges, or when a tissue is ruptured, or when a microbe releases toxins between the tissue and cells; these substances travel to the central regions of the brain and to the vital organs that control the body’s vital processes – by knowing these facts, one would only be able to describe them as ‘complaining’


in a literal sense, and not figuratively. Otherwise, what does complaining actually mean?(1)

Is it not informing and calling for distress from harm which the ill person senses? Who receives the complaint?

Is it not directed to the party that is supposed to be in control of procedures and processes and that has the capability of saving the one who complains and relieving the pain?

If the right arm is wounded, for example, it would not complain to the left arm or the right leg, because they are not able to direct the bodily functions for countering the infection. Instead, pulsations, signals and hormones are released to the vital centers of the brain, which are able to direct the rest of the body to relieve the ailing body part.When the body part complains, the rest of the body co-responds to its complaint. This is what actually takes place according to all denotations of tadaa‘a (to co-respond or to break down) in the Arabic language.1) Some parts call on other parts. The sensory cen-

ters call on the alertness and control centers in

(1) shaka: shakaa, tashakka, wa ishtakaa al-qawm, (all meaning, 'the people complained'): Shakaa ba'dhuhum ila ba'dh ('they complained to each other'). al-ishtika’ (to complain) is to manifest one's misfortunes, such as sickness and the like. ash-shakw: the illness itself. ash-shakiy: the ill person. [Lisaan Al-Arab, vol. 14, p. 439]


the hypothalamus region, which in turn calls on the pituitary gland to secrete hormones, which in turn calls on the rest of the endocrine glands to secrete other hormones that stimulate and call on all of the organs of the body to direct their functions to res-cue the ailing organ, as has already been described earlier in this study.

2) The body co-responds, in the sense that it directs its energies for the benefit of the ailing body part. The heart, for example, hurries to contract and expand to accelerate blood circulation, at the same time that the blood vessels in the inactive body parts contract, while the blood vessels surrounding the affected body part expand, so as to supply it with needed energy, oxygen, antibodies, hormones and constructive amino acids extracted from the liver, the endocrine glands and the muscles, and it sends all stored fat to supply the ailing part with whatever it needs to resist disease and begin healing.

3) The body breaks down, in the sense that it actually breaks down and collapses. It begins to break down the stored fat and muscle proteins to take from it-self in order to provide what the injured part needs and is missing. The body continues in this breaking down process until the disease is under control and


the affected tissues are healed. After that, the body will reconstruct itself.The breaking down continues to a degree com-

mensurate with the severity of the disease. Scientists have calculated the amount of breaking down in each case and found that the body weight lost is propor-tional to the severity of the injury or disease. Tables of this phenomenon can be found in books of medicine. It has been discovered that the self-destruction process could lead to the point of full collapse of the body and could break it down to less than half the original body weight in cases of severe injury, possibly leading to death in cases known as hypercatabolic state.

Sahar, or sleeplessness, takes place in the full sense of the meaning. Even if the ill person’s eyes are sleeping or if he loses consciousness, all of the body’s organs, the circulatory system, the metabolic interaction, respira-tory system, the kidneys, and the heart are in a state of constant unrest throughout the infection. We mean by that that they are active in a way that corresponds to a state of vigilance, and they continue as such throughout the night and day until the part discontinues ailing.

In the scientific part of this study, we have seen the fever’s origins and emission, as well as some of its ben-


efits. We saw that it is one way the body co-responds (or breaks down) for the ailing of the body part “with sleeplessness and fever”.

Not a single fact revealed by modern science is at conflict with the outward or inward meaning of the Hadeeth. In contrast, the Hadeeth provides an accu-rate and comprehensive description of what actually happens. In fact, what some people may assume to be metaphoric or figurative language is actually proven by modern science to be factual and literal without need for interpretation.

The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, tells the Muslims how they should be in terms of mutual love, compassion, and mercy. If one would like to understand to what extent the Prophet ordered the Muslims to be, in terms of mutual love, compassion and mercy, he should ask scholars of medicine and the human body. One should also study and examine what a single body does, and as much as he learns of how the human body interacts, he will understand the purpose of the teachings of Islam and the amount of mutual mercy and compassion that is required among Muslims. Allah Almighty has spoken the truth; He says (what means): {And [there are signs] in yourselves. Then will you not see?} [Quran 51: 21]


It is indeed remarkable that Western scientists use, in their own language, a name for how the nervous sys-tem interacts when the body is exposed to danger or disease. They use it to describe what the system really does. That name is: Sympathetic

This translates literally to: mutual love, compassion and mercy, which is exactly what the Prophet, sallallaa-hu ‘alayhi wa sallam, called it. There is no other word in the Arabic language that can describe what this system in the human body does, and there is no other word in the Arabic language appropriate for translation from the word applied by Western scientists for this system. They derived this word from the actual functions they observed in this system. What they have described is in conformity with what the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, described as translated into the Hadeeth. Allah has told the truth. He says:

{Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed, taught to him by One in-tense in strength.} [Quran 53: 3-5]

Allah has spoken the truth.

References

• Fat-h Al-Baari.

• Saheeh Muslim.

• Sharh As-Sunnah by Imaam Al-Baghawi.

• Al-Qaamoos Al-Muheet.

• Lisaan Al-’Arab by Ibn Manthoor.

• The Unified Medical Dictionary (English, Arabic & French), the Arab Health Ministers’ Council, the World Health Organisa-tion, Arab Medical Union,

• Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, 1983 edition.

• Carol, Mattson and Porth. Ed. J.B. Lippincot Company Philadel-phia London - (Stress and Adaptation p. 26).

• Guyton A., Text Book of Medical Physiology, 6th ed. Philadel-phia WB Saunders 1984.

• Rose RM, Endocrine Response to Stressful Psychological Events. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 3:251, 1980.

• E.J. Moron Compell / C.J. Dikinson / JDH Slater, CRW Edwards / EK Sikora, Clinical Physiology, 5th Edition Blackwell Scientific Publications Oxford, London, Ed. 1984.

• Sabiston, Essentials of Surgery, 1972 W.B. Saunders Company.

End. Praise be to Allah

the co-responsiveness of the body during infection

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