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 honored 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 honored 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 kilometers a day. Even cars can not compete camels yet in rough pumpy 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 traveling, 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 34^oC to 41^oC. A camel only sweats when the body temperature is over 41^oC. 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 37^oC. 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 (34^oC to 41^oC).

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 traveling 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 honored 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 aquainted 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 Bedwins – 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

       An essay for the Turkish writer: Haroun Yahya