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By Ijaz Chaudry
Dear
reader, today we will just briefly touch on the subject of “Light”, its
qualities and attributes. The subject of “Light” is so vast and complicated that
it is beyond the scope of this article. No human being has fully understood the
function of “light” within eco-system of animal and plant kingdom. The research
which has been done up till now is minimal, and there is lot yet to be observed
and learned.
In
this article we will talk about some aspects of “Light” and how animals use this
spectrum of “Light” in their daily lives. The ultimate aim is to show the reader
the power of “light” and how God created and adopted animals in such a way to
use this “light” in most spectacular ways. And hence the following verse puts it
in its perspective;
24
35 GOD is the
light of the heavens and the earth. The allegory of His light is that of a
concave mirror behind a lamp that is placed inside a glass container. The glass
container is like a bright pearl-like star. The fuel thereof is supplied from a
blessed oil-producing tree that is neither eastern nor western. Its oil is
almost self-radiating; needs no fire to ignite it. Light upon light.
GOD guides to His light whomever He
wills. GOD thus cites the parables for the people. GOD is fully aware of all
things.
Indeed in (24:35) the actual entity of God is paralleled to “Light” with
allegorical association. This makes light to be very special and hence this
article is an attempt to show the greatness of God, who created the light and
applied to His creation. However, there is no way we could fully comprehend God,
because of His immense power and glory.
The
verses below imply that No one can encompass the greatness of God, therefore it
is fair to say that this
article is not attempting to know God fully, but only to give few
examples of God’s greatness;
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255 GOD: there is no
other god besides Him the Living the Eternal. Never a moment of unawareness or
slumber overtakes Him. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and everything
on earth. Who could intercede with Him except in accordance with His will? He
knows their past and their future. No one attains any knowledge except as He
wills. His dominion encompasses the heavens and the earth and ruling them never
burdens Him. He is the Most High the Great.
6
80
His people argued with him. He said "Do you argue with me about GOD after
He has guided me? I have no fear of the idols you set up. Nothing can happen to
me unless my Lord wills it. My Lord's knowledge encompasses all things. Would
you not take heed?
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103 No visions can
encompass Him but He encompasses all visions. He is the Compassionate the
Cognizant.
Humans can only see tiny fraction of light spectrum, whereas some animals can
see lot more. The way the creatures see light is finely adapted to where and how
it lives. To find out what a human eye can and cannot see can be demonstrated by
a simple experiment. When sunlight is shown through a prism the light splits
into its constituent colours all seven of them.
It is a simple phenomenon where the sun light bends when it enters the
glass prism and the different colours of light is the output. But that’s not all
some animals can see beyond this colour spectrum, for example beyond blue is
Ultra Violet, and beyond red is Infra-red.
God has adapted the animals to use every bit of light to their advantage.
Now some examples are shown below, how the light spectrum is used by some
animals with God’s leave;
1)
Ultraviolet:
humans cannot see UV, reindeers can. In Alaska, reindeers use this ability to
avoid attacks by wolves. The snow in Alaska is full of UV light reflected of the
snow, but when wolf is approaching reindeer, the reindeers see the wolf as a
dark image, because wolf fur does not reflect UV light the wolf appear as a
black object to reindeer. This immediately alerts reindeer of moving object
approaching and reindeer makes a run away from it, thus saving it from attack.
2)
Blue edge of light: Dragan fly catch their pray 95% of the
time, which is far more successful than any other animal. So what is the secret?
They catch tiny insects while flying in the mid-air, by spotting their
silhouette against the bright sky. Their eyes are especially sensitive to blue
light which makes the sky deafeningly bright. So much so that the tiniest insect
appears as dark silhouette against the sky. But that’s not all dragonflies have
very large eyes this gives them special visual powers, because these little
creatures can see the movement in slow motion. This helps them to pin point and
hunt their pray mid-air.
3)
Bio-Luminous:
Cardinal fish and bio-luminous plankton; Bio-Luminous animals change energy into
light. Cardinal fish prey on Bio-Luminous plankton. When Cardinal fish take a
bite on this plankton, the plankton lights up. Since Cardinal fish do not want
to be exposed by this light to predators, the Cardinal fish let the plankton
out. So that is how this bio-luminous plankton help survive.
So
we have managed to observe three very brief examples of “Light” and how it has
been adapted by animals to hunt or survive in nature.
These three examples are the minutest variety of what nature has in store,
indeed God has created the creation perfected it and then made the humans;
32
7
He is the One who perfected everything He created and started the
creation of the human from clay.