“Say: Travel through the Earth and deeply observe how God did originate the creation; then God produces the next creation; surely God has power over all things” (Qur’an 29:19-20)
Welcome and May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.
Source: Videohive
"When God puts you in a position to make a difference in people's lives that is so palpable, where they wake up and they benefit from something you have done, that is a continuous charity. It is something that is immeasurable."
Dr. Yassine Daoud
There have been multiple cultural references of the eye: windows to the soul, beware the evil eye, the all-seeing eye, eye of the tiger. Whatever your metaphorical interpretation of the eye, the eye is one gateway to understanding the world around us. Not the only one. In our current world of quick judgments and partisanship, two people can see the same thing and yet interpret two very different things. Vision perhaps isn’t the same as understanding. Or perhaps we see the world for what we wish, not for how it actually is.
“Truly it is not their eyes that are blind, but their hearts.” (Qur’an 22:46)
“With Him are the keys of the Unseen, the treasures that none knoweth but He.” (Qur’an 6:59)
In the pursuit of the unseen, we delve into ophthalmology. Dr. Yassine Daoud is a cornea specialist at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. His career has become a labor of love and purpose, not a job. Growing up as a Palestinian refugee to becoming a world expert in cornea-related diseases is not small feat or easy journey. Still Dr. Daoud has a humble appreciation for his humanly limits. He wakes up every day to pray the morning prayer (Fajr) and prays that Allah (God) heals patients through his hands prior to surgery. He has a deep respect for the complexity that is the human body. “The dumbest kidney is smarter than the smartest attending.” He remarks that he is just a human being, living in an imperfect world, working as a surgeon, but not a miracle worker. Aside from genetic mutations and autoimmune disorders, the bodies we are born with and their innate functioning perform so well at their jobs, that medicine still doesn’t completely understand. These systems can’t be replicated, and when parts need replaced, modern science is still woefully inferior to nature’s/God’s design. “Have We not made for him a pair of eyes” (Qur’an 90:8). For example, the tear film around the eye naturally has more than 200 chemical components, and it comes free with birth. Artificial tears contain only 4-6 components and cost about $5-10 a bottle. There is much we understand, but still much more than is unseen in our current understanding.
Source: Anatomy of the Eyeball
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
– Albert Einstein
During the height of the Islamic empire, when blindness was a major cause of disability, early Islamic scientists worked to update and modify the current understanding of ophthalmology at that time to get us to where we are today (1). Ibn Razi wrote a large section on ophthalmology in Kitab al-Mansuri that widely used in Europe (2). Ibn an-Nafis wrote “Perfected Book on Ophthalmology” that outlined anatomy, physiology, pathology, clinical treatment and surgery (1). A major game changer was Ibn-Haytham’s (Alhazen) work on recognizing that vision was formed in the eye due to light emission or reflection from an object, not the other way around, as had been postulated by Euclid and Aristotle (3). This theory, after traveling to Europe, led Sir Roger Bacon to propose vision correction through the use of lenses (4).
No matter your prescription or what lens you choose to see the world through, sight is a powerful tool. But what will we do with this tool? “It is He who has created for you the faculties of hearing, sight, feeling and understanding” (Qur’an 23:78). Through seeing, physically and metaphorically, we can enhance our ability to understand the world around us, maybe even our purpose in life. “My favorite quote from the Qur’an, and sometimes misunderstood and misinterpreted is ‘Ye are the best of nations, evolved FOR mankind (Qur’an 3:110),’ not inherently the best OF mankind. We are here FOR people, to serve people to get closer to God. Most people who are extremist are the ones who don’t have religious foundations and are easily manipulated. It is very important to understand.”
“Read in the name of your Lord, who created man from a clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by then pen.” (Qur’an 96:1-4).
“But concerning vision alone is a separate science formed among philosophers, namely, optics, and not concerning any other sense...It is possible that some other science may be more useful, but no other science has so much sweetness and beauty of utility. Therefore it is the flower of the whole of philosophy and through it, and not without it, can the other sciences be known” (Sir Roger Bacon)“
Notes:
1. UWOMJ: http://www.uwomj.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/v78n1.41-45.pdf
2. Arrington, G.E. A History of Ophthalmology. New York: MD Publications, Inc.; 1959
3. Esposito, JL, editor. The Oxford History of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1999. p.155-213.
4. Sorsby, A. A Short History of Ophthalmology. London: Staples Press; 1933.
For more information:
International Institute of Islamic Medicine: http://www.iiim.org/
1001 Inventions: the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization: http://www.1001inventions.com