The Signs In Living Things PROFESSIONAL HUNTERS

1. The Signs In Living Things PROFESSIONAL HUNTERS In the sixth verse of Surah Hud, Allah states that Allah gives the "sustenance" of all living things, that is, Allah creates all the provisions that provide for their subsistence: There is no creature on the earth which is not dependent upon Allah for its provision. He knows where it lives and where it dies. They are all in a Clear Book. (Chapter Hud: Verse : 06)

2. One can easily recognize how Allah "gives sustenance" to all living things once one looks around oneself conscientiously and with wisdom. All our food and drink are things that are "made" and "created". The water we drink, the bread, fruits and vegetables we eat are all the results of a special creation. Take a fruit, an orange for instance.... This fruit is originally formed on the branch of a tree, which is, in fact, a mass of wood. The tree absorbs minerals and water from the soil and combines them with the energy it obtains from the sun. The result it yields is extremely useful for the human body, extremely tasty and fragrant when consumed by humans. Moreover, it is in a very healthy and aesthetically pleasing wrapping. How does a tree bring about such a yield? Why is it so useful to the human body? Why do all fruits contain essential vitamins appropriate to the seasons in which they grow? Why are they so tasty and not bitter? Why are they so fragrant and do not stink? Certainly a tree is just a bulk of wood and it is out of the question for it to produce a fruit on its own and equip it with features essential for human use. Just as Allah sustains human beings, so does He sustain the animals. In the following pages, we will review the hunting techniques some living beings use to reach their sustenance.

3. THE JUMPING SPIDER  As is widely known, spiders construct a web and wait for insects to become trapped. The jumping spider, contrary to others, prefers to go after its prey itself. It makes a nimble leap to reach its prey. It may capture a fly that passes half a meter away from itself in the air by leaping upon it. The spider makes this amazing leap by its eight feet that work on hydraulic pressure principles, and all of a sudden it descends on its prey and inserts it powerful jaws in it. This leap usually takes place in a convoluted environment of plants. The spider must calculate the most appropriate angle for a successful leap, and consider the speed and direction of its prey. More interesting is how it saves its own life after catching its prey. The insect could possibly die, because when jumping to catch its prey, it launches itself into the air and so it could easily crash down to the ground from the heights (the spider is usually at the top of a tree). The spider, however, does not face such an end. The spider thread, which it had secreted just before jumping and which it sticks on the branch it is on, saves it from falling to the ground and keeps him dangling in the air. This thread is so strong that it can hold both the spider and its prey. Another interesting feature of this spider is that the poison it injects into its prey liquefies its tissues. The food of the spider is nothing else than the liquefied tissues of its prey. Certainly, the features of this spider are not gifts (!) of coincidence. It is necessary that it should have gained the skill of both jumping and, at the same time, making a thread that will prevent it from falling. If it could not jump, it would starve and die. If it could not make a thread or if its thread were not strong enough, it would crash to the ground. Then the spider must both have a body structure suitable for jumping and a system to secrete a thread strong enough to lift its prey. Besides that, the spider is not only a mechanism that produces thread and jumps but a complex living organism And must exist with all its features intact at the same time. The development of none of these features can be deferred. For instance, can you think of a spider with an incomplete digestive system?

4. IT SEES 360 DEGREES AROUNDAnother extremely interesting feature of the jumping spider is its skill in seeing. Many living organisms, including human beings, can only see a limited space with their two eyes and are unable to see behind them. However, the jumping spider can see everything around itself including its back with its four pairs of eyes located on top of its head. Two of these eyes are extended forward from the middle of the head like test-tubes. These two big eyes (called A.M. eyes) can move from right to left, and up and down in their sockets. The other four eyes on the sides of the head cannot perceive the image completely, yet can detect every movement around them. In this way, the animal can easily identify a prey behind it. The ability of the jumping spider's eyes to see independently from each other helps the animal perceive objects more rapidly. In the pictures, the dark eye looks at the camera, and the light eye looks elsewhere. It is a wonder that the jumping spider has eight eyes and an angle of vision of 360 degrees whereas other creatures have only two eyes. Certainly, the animal has not, by itself, "thought" that this would be more useful and thus produced additional eyes, or - to be accurate - these eyes did not originate coincidentally. The animal has been created with all these features by a Creator who is All Knowing & All Powerful

5. WAR MACHINE: THE SCORPION BrainThe brain's structure extends from head to tail and consists of fifteen nerve lobes. This structure of the brain provides a great advantage for the animal, allowing it to make quick decisions and to transmit reflexes and all necessary orders to the organs. Poisonous stingThe potent poison of scorpions, which is capable of killing a human being, is injected into enemies via the stings located at the back of their body. A robust armour Its outer covering that wraps it like an armour is sturdy enough to protect it not only from its enemies but also from radiation. The human body has resistance to approximately 600 rads of radiation, whereas the tolerance of scorpions rises as high as 40-150 thousand rads. LungsIt has eight air vessels in its abdomen. It continues to breathe easily even if only one of them is open. It can stay under water for two days owing to its strong lungs. AbdomenOn its underside , the female scorpion bears a pair of unique sense organs called "pectines". With these, it identifies the surface texture and selects the most appropriate place for laying its eggs. FeetThe detectors on its feet help the animal perceive every kind of movement, noise and vibration. These detectors are so sensitive that the scorpion can sense the vibrations caused by a nearby living organism in 1/1000th of a second. PincersThe function of the scorpion's pincers is to render its victims ineffective before stinging them. Moreover, it can use its pincers to dig the sand and hide under ground.

6. HOW DOES IT MOVE ON THE SAND?This desert-dwelling snake can move swiftly on the sand. By contracting its chest muscles by degrees, it moves its body in an S-form.  At the beginning of the movement, it twists its body, lifts its head and keeps it poised in the air. As the contraction, which drives the movement, proceeds to the tail, the head moves forward and touches the earth. In the meantime, the motion of contraction has reached the tail. A fresh wave lifts the tail up from the sand and brings it up to the level of the head.  Thus, the snake moves forward by leaving parallel traces with a slope of 45 degrees on average.  Throughout this movement, only two parts of the snake touch the sand. With this form of movement, the snake's body is protected from being scorched by making minimal contact with the extremely hot, burning sand.

10. CAMOUFLAGE TECHNIQUE OF THE ANTS If you were asked what you see in the above picture, you would definitely say, "there are some ants above and below the leaf". However, what you see under the leaf is a jumping spider lurking to hunt living ants. This species of the jumping spider looks so similar to the ants that even the ants think it is one of them. The only difference between the ant and the spider is the number of legs. The spider has eight legs whereas the ant has six. In order to do away with this "handicap", which will make him readily recognized, the jumping spider stretches its two forelegs forward and lifts them up. Thus, its two legs look exactly like the antennae of ants. Yet, the camouflage does not consist solely of this. The animal needs also an eye pattern that will make it seem like an ant. Its own eyes are not big and in the shape of a dark spot like those of the ants. One feature it possesses by birth helps it solve this problem. The spider has two big spots at the two sides of its head. These two spots resemble the ant's eyes (notice the spots at the sides of the spider’s head in the above picture).