THE FLIGHTS OF BIRDS

January 19, 2018Science & Faith

Regarding the flight of birds the Qur’an says: “Do they not look at the birds, held poised in the midst of (the air and) the sky? Nothing holds them up but (the power of) Allah. Verily in this are signs for those who believe.” [Al-Qur’an 16:79]

A similar message is repeated in the Qur’an in the verse: “Do they not observe the birds above them, spreading their wings and folding them in? None can uphold them except (Allah) Most Gracious: truly it is He that watches over all things.” [Al-Qur’an 67:19]

The Arabic word amsaka literally means, ‘to put one’s hand on, seize, hold, hold someone back,’ which expresses the idea that Allah holds the bird up in His power. These verses stress the extremely close dependence of the birds’ behaviour on Divine order. Modern scientific data has shown the degree of perfection attained by certain species of birds with regard to the programming of their movements. It is only the existence of a migratory programme in the genetic code of the birds that can explain the long and complicated journey that very young birds, without any prior experience and without any guide, are able to accomplish. They are also able to return to the departure point on a definite date.

Prof. Hamburger in his book ‘Power and Fragility’ gives the example of ‘mutton-bird’ that lives in the Pacific with its journey of over 15,000 miles in the shape of figure ‘8’. It makes this journey over a period of 6 months and comes back to its departure point wit a maximum delay of one week. The highly complicated instructions for such a journey have to be contained in the birds’ nervous cells. They are definitely programmed. Should we not reflect on the identity of this ‘Programmer’?