Heart

I started working months before you were born. Even though I have kept beating ceaselessly

every second inside, you have never given an ear to find out who it is. It is me, your heart, the

pump engine of your body. I feel an urge to give you some counsel.

When you were just an embryo, my creation began from a special mass of cells. At first, I looked

like a tube, then I twisted, turned, and gradually the creation of my chambers and my

neighboring veins began. Together with other cells of the body, we developed to function as

different parts, such as nerves, skin, cartilage, muscles, and so on. And the cells which make

me up are very specially programmed. When they reached a certain number and mass on your

twenty-second day, they were commanded to march, and only God knows for how long. When

all my cells contract together to beat, you feel it as your pulse. I operate in your body, Rasan,

but you do not think much about my beats, but when you run fast, I simply have to beat faster

because your legs need more blood.Only then, Rasan, do you notice me, but you do not give

me a second thought anyway. You are so heedless, as if I will carry out this duty forever and will

never get tired. Let us admit that is not so unusual for a young man. However,the real tragedy is

you do not ever think of who blessed you with such a gift, and that really makes me sad.

Nowadays you go to high school, and there they occasionally talk about me in biology lessons.

Rasan, you are not to blame, actually-teachers talk about me as if I were a simple pump.

However, you cannot even move a finger if I do not pump blood into your brain. But today, I will

let you know that I am not just a simple mass of flesh. I am going to tell you today that you

should care about me both physically and spiritually, otherwise, you will truly regret it. I am just a

friend, warning you about the bitter truth; you still have a chance to make it up.

All the cells, the building blocks of your body (maybe 100 trillion of them) need me for their

nutrition, breathing, digestion, waste disposal, and to carry out their particular duties. You

wonder why? Well, all their needs are met thanks to my being created to strive ceaselessly. This

is why I start working before any other organ at the embryonic stageEven I have no idea exactly

for how long I will work; sometimes, regardless of my good health, the appointed hour comes,

and I leave my duty in obedience to the divine command.d. For the most part, the Angel of

Death does not tell me to stop for no reason-he somehow uses an apparent cause. In an age

when accidents, bad habits, and suicides are on the rise, there are so many reasons for me to

abandon my duty.

In fact, even I marvel at how I work. I am equipped with certain precautions against blood losses

which occur as a result of injuries, but if the blood loss is not made up for and the bleeding is not

stopped, I may get tired and stop functioning after a certain time. I can be easily affected by

certain types of poisoning. This does not matter much, but what really upsets me is your living

irregularly, unhealthy eating habits, inactivity, laziness, and especially your leading a stressful

life quarrelling with everyone. Then, when I can no longer tolerate them, I just quit or pretend to

quit in order to draw your attention. After that, you have people screaming, calling the doctor in

panic, demanding pills, adrenaline, or heart massage... It is fine, but why do I have to wait until I

become this way? Listen, Rasan, I am telling you again, it is you who does me the greatest

harm. So do not be offended if I one day get tired and quit! You just keep gulping down fatty

foods, my downstairs neighbor, the stomach, keeps complaining that you are filling it up too

much. When it is filled up, it starts putting pressure on me naturally. Haven’t you heard about the

hadith advising people to leave one third of their stomach empty and rise from the table before

they are full? I can understand the vegetables, but what about the fast food, fried things, and

other unhealthy stuff you eat? Be careful, you will have to pay for it before long, and it will be too

late. Well, one has the right to benefit from the blessings in this world, but one should know

where to stop. If you go on like that, my valves will be disabled by fat and my main arteries will

be clogged. As for my coronary arteries, they are already narrow and they can be clogged in a

short time and lead to a heart failure.

You are only a couch potato who spends the entire day sedentary in front of the TV. If you

started driving to the corner store, I wouldn't be shocked. If only you spent some of the day

working out. Some of your pals perform the daily prayers, therefore accomplishing two goals at

once. By engaging in physical activity, they serve their Creator and calm their minds.

Furthermore, their faith gives them peace of mind. They also fast for a full month once a year,

which is a relief to us. I find satisfaction in continuing to be hungry during a particular period of

the day since it allows me to burn some fat

The muscle tissue which makes up my main structure is designed as an intricate ball of fibers

and so I am able to function properly without changing my shape too much as I contract and

relax. The surface of my walls is wrapped up in a double layer in order to prevent harm from

rubbing against the ribs, which are set around me as a protective cage. Also, there is a special

liquid between the two layers of the membrane and this lowers the friction even further. C’mon

Rasan! Who can arrange so many precautions so splendidly?

I function similarly to a pump having four chambers, just like automobile engines having four

cylinders. My atriums are my upper chambers. The one on the right receives waste-rich venous

blood, while the one on the left receives arterial blood, which is oxygen-rich. Despite having

relatively weak muscles, these chambers have enough strength to transmit the blood they

receive to the lower chambers. My lower chambers, known as the ventricles, have more robust

muscles and thicker walls. Their ability to contract and pump blood under intense pressure is

granted. Additionally, the lower chamber on the left has thicker walls and much stronger

muscles because it is this chamber that allows me to send blood under high pressure to the

entire body. and speed. Thanks to the large vein named the aorta, I send blood to each organ in

the required amount and at the right speed. Precise timing is vital for my four chambers to

contract successively, to open the valves at the exact moment they should, and to send blood to

the neighboring chamber or to the two main arteries. The closing of the valves also requires

perfect timing to prevent the blood from flowing back. The coordination of this timing mechanism

is obtained through the regular production of electricity by the atrioventricular bundle. If there is

something wrong with the timing of my valves, or if they cannot close properly because they are

blocked with fat or calcification and so let blood leak, you diagnose this situation as a disease.

As a precaution against blood flowing backwards through the valves between the atriums and

ventricles under heavy pressure, some cords are tightly fixed under them. You are not aware of

any of these, but I keep working even when you are asleep. Naturally, I may change my speed

at different times, according to what you do. While you are asleep, I work at an easier tempo. I

work faster than normal while you are running or doing heavy exercise and I send the necessary

amount of blood to every organ. My energy source? Well, the fuels I mostly make use of are

fatty acids, lactic acid, and sugars. In addition, thanks to my special metabolism, I never get

tired. There is only a very short period of rest of one tenth of a second between every

contraction and relaxation I make. The stimulating command must come with perfect precision

so that all my muscles start to contract and relax simultaneously and so that I can generate an

efficient pumping force. Actually, I am not quite sure how this timing is arranged during different

activities. A tiny automatic center on me produces electrical signals; the activities of upsetting

and then resetting the ion balance inside and outside the cells in order to produce these signals

is carried out with reactions happening in a time as short as one thousandth of a second. I am

not truly independent even though these cells make me work with the electricity they generate.

The nerves from the brain are the main aspect that influences how I function. As a result, I am

also affected by your feelings of fear, rage, and despair. The reason why people believed that I

was the source of emotions is probably because, despite the fact that feelings like grief and

rage are processed in the brain, they manifested in me, making me the location of the emotions.

and your sadness disturbed my functioning as well. It must be for this reason that people have

mistakenly believed that I am the emotional center, even if feelings like grief and rage are

actually processed in the brain.

Rasan, I will ask you a simple question: is there some engineer who made the TV set you lie

before? Are there people who write the articles in the magazine you are holding or who lay out

the letters and pictures? There are some agents right? So, more perfectly than all of these,

should there not be One who has created me and my system of blood vessels, and then placed

me in your chest cavity? Well, it is high time you switched off that TV set. Now Rasan, just as I

fulfill my duty regularly to keep you alive, you should also spare just ten minutes to pray for and

praise your Lord Who has created your body so perfectly. In the meantime, I will have found a

chance to get rid of the strain you put me under because of your hurry and stress.

Within these few pages, I have probably told you only a thousandth of my splendid structure and

the precision of my functioning. Neither I, nor physicians have the proper knowledge to explain

all about me completely. So, my friend Rasan, you need to learn to say, “How beautifully it has

been made,” instead of “How beautiful it is.”