"Do they not
look at the Camels, how they are made? [17] And at the Sky, how it is
raised high? [18] And at the Mountains, how they are fixed firm? [19] And at the Earth, how it is spread out? [20] Therefore do thou give
admonition, for thou art one to admonish. [21] Thou art not one to manage
(men's) affairs." [22]
In these honoured verses, Allah ( Praise & Glory be
to him) surpassed the camel upon all other living
creatures, and made the contemplation of how it was made prior to raising high
the sky, fixing firm the mountains, or spreading out the earth. Allah demanded
to make the contemplation of these creatures as the entrance to the pure belief
Allah’s power and contrivance.
In this honoured verse, the
Creator, who knows the secrets of his creatures, advises people to think and
contemplate in creating camels as a creature witnesses Allah’s glory, power and
planning. We will realize the amazing facts science has revealed recently in
creating the camel which prove the forefront of the Holy Qur’an in indicating
such a miracle creature. This shows that the Holy Qur’an is the miracle book
that Allah has revealed to his prophet, Mohammed (Peace be upon him).
The Scientific Miracles:
The first obvious matter in camels is the external structure
which shows astonishing and remarkable evidences.
Camel’s Ears:
Ears are small and little prominent. Hair covers them from
each side to protect them of wind-blown sand. They, Also, have the ability to
curve backward and stick to head if a sandy wind is blowing.
Camel’s Nostrils:
They are two tight slit-like surrounded by hair and have skin
rims. These enable a camel to close the nostrils in order to protect the lungs
from particles of sand carried by wind.
Camel’s Eyes:
They have a double row of long
eyelashes. They are similar to a trap in that they interlaced each
other, so they can protect the camel’s eyes and keep out the sand.
Camel’s Tail:
It has hair on sides to protect the back parts against
wind-blown sand which is as annoying as unceasing bullets.
Camel’s Limbs:
They are long in order to raise the body high upon the dust rose
in the air. Also, they help in its agility and rapidity. The feet are reinforced
with broad callous elastic pads that spread when the camel is walking on sand.
These enable a camel to walk over the softest kinds of sand that are difficult
for any other animal to move on them. This feature makes the camel worth the
title “Ship of the Desert”.

In many arid habitats, the camel is the
ideal way to pass through deserts. The caravan of camels, carrying personal
properties, burdens about 50-60 kilometres a day. Even cars can not compete
camels yet in the rough deserts.
Camel’s Neck:
Allah ( Praise & Glory be to him) creates a camel with a
long neck, so it can reaches the plants down on floor and leaves high on trees.
Besides, the long neck of a camel raises the head high upon filths, and enables
a camel to stand erect with loads.
When a camel sits for resting or stands to be prepared for
travelling, its heavy body depends on the callous pads on feet, and most weight
depends on the thorax; by which it can pulverize an animal or a person in case
of lying down on them.

Theses pads are one of the miracles that
the Creator granted for this amazing animal. A camel’s structure helps in
sitting on the harsh hot sand – which is often the only place for a camel to
rest on - so a camel can adapt to it and protect itself against any
harm.
The young camel is born with those pads. They are permanent
and hereditary, not like human beings’ shoes.
Camel’s Stomach:
The stomach has 4 sides, and the digestive system is strong
that a camel can digest anything other than food in dry areas, like rubber for
example.
A camel doesn’t breathe through mouth, nor pants even in high
temperature or thirst. By this feature, it can avoid water
evaporation.
Conserving Temperature
in Camel’s Body:
If it was extremely necessary, only a little amount of sweat
is dripped. This is referred to the ability of a camel’s body to adapt to living
conditions in deserts in which the temperature fluctuates from morning to
evening.
A camel’s body is covered with thick hair which expels the
heat, and keeps it out of skin. The system of conserving temperature in a camel
can make the temperature fluctuates 7 degrees causing no damages. i.e. from
34oC to 41oC. A camel only sweats when the body
temperature is over 41oC. That happens only in certain time during
the day. However, at night, it releases the heat saved from sun’s rays to the
cold air without losing any water drop. This mechanism can conserve 5 litters of
water. 
We should not forget to compare this feature in a camel to a
human being whose normal body temperature is settled at approximately
37oC. If the temperature raised or fell down, this will be a warning
sign of an illness that has to be cured by effective remedies. A human being
might die if the body temperature reached one of the two values that a camel can
reach (34oC to 41oC).
Production of Water by a Camel:
A camel produces water, which contributes in enduring hunger
and thirst, via fats stored in its hump through a chemical process a man can not
transcend.
It is known that the oxidation of fats and carbohydrates only
forms water and carbon dioxide, which the body gets rid of by breathing out,
besides forming a large amount of energy necessary in continuing the biological
activities.
Water produced by oxidation of fats is similar to that formed
by lighting a candle for example, in that both give off steam that can be
assured of its existence by putting a cold glass slab over the candle’s flame,
so that water produced by burning condenses on the slab. In camels, the source
of water is the steam coming out with exhale. A camel turns to most fats stored
in its hump when food is rare or lacked. Then, it burns fats slowly and the hump
diminishes till leans to the side, and becomes a hollow loose bag when hunger
and thirst last long with the tired travelling camel.
Allah’s judiciousness in the creation of camels is that the
reserve of fats is very huge that surpasses any other animal. This can be proven
by comparing a camel to sheep which is famous of huge fatty buttock that stores
about 11 kgm of fats in, while a camel can store up to 10 times more than that
weight. (i.e. about 120 kgm). Undoubtedly, it is a large amount that a camel
uses in the metabolism and turns it into water, energy and carbon dioxide.
Therefore, a camel can spend about a month and a half without drinking
water.
However extreme thirst attenuates a camel and makes it losing
most of its weight. Though, it can go on with life robustly till it finds fresh
or salt water, so it quaffs abundantly till quenching thirst. Moreover, camel’s
blood consists of Albumin enzyme in amounts larger than other organisms. This
enzyme increases the camel’s endurance of water. Camel’s superpower ability to
drink intensive salty liquids is due to a special aptitude in the kidney to get
rid of salt by excreting highly intensive urine after retrieving water and
taking it back to blood.
There are other secrets that science could not reveal its
judiciousness yet, but they would clarify other patterns of miracles in the
creation of camels as figured out by the eloquent Qur’an.
Camel’s Milk:
It is one of the miracles Allah specified to camels. Females
can be milked 2 times a day for one year in average. The daily average
production of milk is about 5-10 kgm. The annual average production is about
230-260 kgm. The components of the milk vary according to the herd a camel
belongs to, and vary from a female to another. Also, they vary according to:
plants or grass a camel eats, sorts and amounts of water a camel drinks, seasons
in which a camel was raised up, temperature of environment, age of a camel,
milking period, number of babies, hereditary capabilities, and analyzing
techniques used.
Although knowing the components of camel’s milk is very
important, for the sake of a young camel or a human being who drinks that milk,
it, on the other hand, implies and deduces the importance of such milk in the
nutrition for a young camel or a human being. Generally, camel’s milk is
red-like white, sweet and acrid. However, it can be salty sometimes, or can
taste like water. The variation of milk tastes is due to sorts of plans, grass
and water a camel gets in. PH -sourness measurement- rises in fresh camel milk.
If it is left for a while, sourness will rise up quickly.
The proportion of water in camel’s milk reaches up to 84%-90%
which has a great importance in preserving life of young camels and populations
in arid or dry areas. During milking period, milked camel loses water in that
milk during dry seasons. This might be a normal adaptation as a camel can supply
their babies and people not only with nutrition, but also with liquids necessary
to their living and surviving. This reflects the grace and kindness of Allah
(Praise & Glory be to him).
As water in milk produced by the thirsty camel increases, fats
are minimized from 4.3% to 1.1%. Generally, the average proportion of fats in
camel’s milk ranges from 2.6% to 5.5%. Fats are linked to proteins in camel’s
milk.
Comparing camel’s milk to cow’s, buffalo’s or sheep’s, it was
noticed that camel’s milk contains a little amount of short-chain fatty acids.
Researchers found that the nutrition in camel’s milk is represented in the high
concentration of volatile acids which are considered the most important nutrious
factor for a human being, especially for those with heart diseases.
An amazing matter is that Lactose in camel’s milk remains as
it was since the first month of milking period for both thirsty and non-thirsty
camels. This is a grace and mercy from the Most High and All-Powerful to
safeguard human beings and animals. Lactose is a necessary type of sugar used as
laxatives and diuretic medicines. It is, also, important sugar composing
newborn’s food.
Beside the high nutrition of camel’s milk, it has many medical
benefits and uses which makes it worth being the unique nutrition that cattlemen
in some areas depend on. This is a grace of Allah, the Supreme.
The Importance of a Camel in supplying with nutrition:
When Africa had dryness in 1984-1985, tribes in Kenya who
lived on cows that halted milking were perished -or about to perish- and most of
them died while those who lived on camels survived because camels were providing
milk during dry seasons. Thus, raising a camel has significant economical causes
as future insurance. Specialists are seeking to go deep into studying this
animal in a world where resources of supplies and energy vanish so
quickly.
As previously explained, a contemplating look over a camel has
been convincing people, since the sent of the Spirit of Faith, of the miracles
in the creatures by an apparent way witnesses the Creator’s power. Also,
well-versed scientists and researchers are still finding new hidden miracles
till today in this amazing animal which increases the belief in the Creator’s
power, and achieves the harmony between objective medical facts that scientist
have revealed and what Allah said in the Holy Qur’an.
A comparison between a Camel and a human being:
Comparing a camel’s capabilities to a human being may clarify
the uniqueness of miracles in a camel. Scientists’ experiments assured that a
camel living on dry food can endure raging thirst in hot summer for two weeks or
more. But this would attenuate a camel so that it might lose about a quarter of
its weight during this period. To understand this superpower, we should compare
that to human beings who can not survive in such conditions more than one or two
days. If a person lost 5% of his weight, he will not be able to control himself.
If this percentage increased to 10 %, he will be confused, lose hearing, and
lose feeling of pain (This is a grace and mercy from Allah in the destinies).
However, if losing water exceeded 12% of his weight, he will not be able to
swell food; thus, can not survive even with the existence of water without the
assistance of helpers. In case of helping a person about to die of thirst,
helpers should give water in small amounts to avoid the effect of surprising
change in the proportion of water in blood. On the other hand, a thirst camel
can quaff abundantly without anyone’s help to retrieve in a few minutes what it
has lost during thirst days.
Another feature of a camel surpassing a human being is that a
thirsty camel can quench thirst by any type of water exists, even water of seas,
or extreme salty or bitter swamps. This is referred to a special aptitude in the
kidney to get rid of salt by excreting highly intensive urine after retrieving
water to take it back to blood; while any trial of helping a thirsty person with
salty water would rush his death. The most astonishing matter is that if a camel
living in extremely savage conditions of oppressive heat in deserts, it would
consume a large amount of water as sweating, urination and steam coming out with
exhale. It almost would lose a quarter of its weight without resentment because
most of lost water was gotten from the body’s tissues and only a little water
was gotten from blood, so that blood can still run as a liquid
distributing heat and vanishing it from the body’s surface. Otherwise, the
temperature would rise surprisingly to an extent that the camel’s systems can
not bear, especially the mind, which would lead to death.
Therefore, we find the honoured verse: "
Do they not
look at the Camels, how they are made?"
[17]
represents a pattern of what
can be achieved by science in all the scientific and instinctive levels. There
are no scientific facts or theories in the text, but it has more than that. It
includes the keys to reach these facts by fascinating guidance from Allah, the
All-Known who is well acquainted with secrets of what He has created.
These are some standpoints concerning miracles of the camel’s
creation from structure and feature aspects. They can be realized by
contemplating instinct by which the Bedouins – who live in deserts - were convinced of
the miracles in the creation from the first moment. Also, they show the
Creator’s power.
Written by: Fares Nor AL-Hak Editor of The Miracle in
Qur’an Encyclopedia
Resource: “Raheeq Al-Elm Wa AL-Eman”
book of Dr. Ahmad Fuad Basha

Camel in Prostration