THE MOST PERFECT PUMP

The most perfectly structured pump in the world is now beating on the left side of your chest. With its marvellous design and unceasing contractions, your heart makes the entire blood in your body complete 1,000 full cycles in a day.The heart is a pump made of flesh, which is approximately as big as one's fist. Nevertheless, it is clearly the strongest, the most durable and the most efficient engine in the world with respect to its capacity. We have many reasons to express the strength of the heart in this way. Most important, the heart uses a great deal of energy when it beats. With the energy used by the heart, blood can be raised up to 3 metres high. It may be helpful to give an example in order to make it easier to comprehend the heart's capacity. In an hour the heart can produce an amount of energy that is enough to lift an average car approximately one metre above the ground.

ORIGINAL PUMP IN THE HEART

The heart, which is a muscular organ of about the size of one's fist, consists of two halves. There are two pumps in these sections. The left pump, which is stronger, drives oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body. The right pump is weaker than the former and pumps oxygen-poor blood to the lungs. This transport from the heart to the lungs is over a short distance and is, therefore, called the "small circulation". The former is called the "large circulation". Each of these halves of the heart is divided into two further sections. Blood between them passes to the other section through heart valves. These pumps operate unceasingly with a great amount of energy, thanks to which blood circulates through our bodies 1,000 times a day.

THE MOTOR OF THE BODY: THE HEART

Have you ever thought how litres of blood circulate unceasingly through our body up and down? Every object needs a motor for continuous motion. Cars, aeroplanes, motorboats and even your remote-controlled toy cars move by means of motors. Likewise, blood circulating through our body needs a motor too. The motor that propels our blood night and day, for months and even for years is our heart. Place your fingers on your wrist and wait for a while. You will feel the beating of your heart. Your heart beats 70 times in a minute, and pumps some 152 million litres (40 million gallons) of blood throughout your life. That much blood is an approximate equivalent of the amount 10,000 oil tankers will hold. These figures are astonishing, aren't they? Now suppose that you have to bail a cup of water from one bucket to the other, 70 times a minute. In the end your arm and hand muscles would ache and you would need to rest. However, your heart carries out this task all through out your life and it never takes any rest.

THE HEART MAINTAINS ITSELF

Machinery needs routine maintenance. It may be necessary to maintain some machine parts or to replace those that are worn out. Machines need to be treated with oil after a certain period of operation, so as to lessen wearing down by friction. Like machinery, the heart, which keeps operating all the time, requires maintenance too. However, the heart carries out its maintenance itself; it lubricates itself. How do you think a heart lubricates itself? The answer to this question is hidden in the creation of the heart. The outer surface of heart is covered by a sac consisting of two membranes. Between these membranes is a greasy fluid. This fluid acts like motor oil and facilitates easy operation of the heart. This self-protective structure in the heart reveals once again how perfect and complete is Allah's artistry in creation.