The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 236
PREFACE SUB-FOOTNOTE 235 features of the body, imparting a freshness, beauty, and proportion to the physical appearance of man. Then there is the fifth stage in which the human frame is covered with laḥm [flesh] in proportion to the needs of the particular part of the body. This is the flesh which is consumed as the result of starvation or disease, and many a time a man becomes so emaciated that he is nothing but skeleton—the same that was in the fifth stage—as is the case of those suffering from hectic fever, consumptives disease and dia- betics in an advanced stage. And if the man is destined to live, God restores the flesh to him. In short, this is the same flesh which gives beauty and lustre and proportion to the body, and there is no doubt that this flesh keeps on depositing on the human outline in the foetus condition, and when the foetus has acquired sufficient growth, it is, with the command of God Almighty, quickened with life. It is then that from the condition of a vegetative growth it assumes an animal state and begins to make movements in the womb. In short, it is estab- lished that the child progresses to the animal from the vegetative state when thick muscle becomes distributed proportionally over the body. This has been proven by man's constant observation and experience. This is exactly the account mentioned by the Noble Quran and con- sistently borne out by observation. Who but an unwise person can find fault with it? Reverting again to the earlier topic, I wish to state that as in the case of 'miniature universe, i. e. man, the law of God is that its develop- ment is completed after it has passed through six stages, the same law of nature guides us to the rational view that in the beginning of creation when the larger universe was brought into being, God must have kept in view these six stages in its creation, and every stage, with the object of differentiating one from the other, must have been assigned a day or certain length of time, just as the six stages of man's development cor- respond to six periods of time. That a week of seven days is agreed on by the whole world and that, deducting one free day, the remaining six are devoted to work, points out to us that the six days of the week are in