The memory of water
By Dr Abbas and Dr Israh Tejani
"And among His Signs is that …He sends down water from the sky, and therewith revives the earth after its death. Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who understand." (Holy Qur’an 30:24)
Water is a simple substance that is often taken for granted. Yet through its intricate properties, its existence allows life, as every living being in this world contains water. The human being is made up of 70% water, much like the world itself.
A theory was put forward in 1988 by Jacques Beneviste that water is capable of having a memory, a theory that was subsequently rigorously tested by hundreds of experiments, majority of which confirmed this hypothesis. Recently in Japan, Dr. Emoto performed an experiment where he put some normal tap water into several test tubes. He then said different words, blowing into a different test tube each time he had said a different word. He subsequently used an electron microscope to see the shape of the crystalline structure of the water in each test tube, and compared it to the pictures he had taken before. The results were astonishing, for the shape of the water changed depending on what word was said – it “remembered” the word. Other studies have shown that the shape of water can have a great impact on the body – a good shape can help restore or keep the body in a state of health, whilst a bad shape can lead to many diseases, one of which is cancer.
This idea is extremely relevant to some of the things we have been taught in Islam. As a child I was always taught the importance of saying “Bismillah” before eating or drinking anything. Dr. Emoto found that the word “God” transformed the water into a beautiful shape. As 70% of the human body is made up of water, and a lot of our foods contain water, saying “bismillah” before eating will help to change not only the crystalline shape of what we are about to consume into a nice, harmonious structure, but also help to refine the cells in our body, helping us become stronger against disease.
As I was growing up, I used to see my mother blow into a glass of water after reciting duas, something that is highly emphasised in Islam. We are sometimes even taught to wash ayaats of the Holy Qur’an and to drink this water. It is natural to question this practice, as at first sight it does not seem to make logical sense. However, the impact that reciting dua has on the shape of the water molecule was tested by Dr. Emoto. The pictures below illustrate his findings.
We see that after the dua was recited, the water changed into a beautiful, symmetrical shape. Through this, we can begin to understand why reciting du’as or the Holy Qur’an upon water can provide us with a cure. In fact, there has recently been much discussion and research regarding ‘digital biology.’ This is where waves are fired at a drug from a transmitter, and the scattering pattern of the waves is then collected at the receiver. The waves that are collected at the receiver are then fired at a glass of water, and the patient asked to drink it. A study conducted by Thomas found that treating a human breast tumour in mice with water that had been transformed in this way from the audio signal of Taxol® (usually used to treat breast cancer) showed just as much statistical significance as treating it with the drug itself (ie, it was just as beneficial as taking the drug itself)
It is only natural that we then turn and think about the events that took place on the 10th of Muharram. Hazrat Abbas (AS) took a handful of water from the Euphrates, looked into it and then threw it down. However, his influence upon the water was so great that the Euphrates now remains in constant circumambulation (tawaaf) around his grave. In addition to this, Dr. Emoto found that saying the word ‘peace’ over the water gave it an almost perfect shape. If we cast our minds back to the moment when Imam Hussain (AS) was delivering his last will to Imam Sajjad (AS), we realise the wisdom of his words when he said: “When my shi’a drink a cool glass of water, tell them to send me their salaam.”
In trying to look for the perfect crystalline structure of water, Dr. Emoto stumbled upon the perfect combination, which is love plus gratitude. Just one of these is not enough. Love needs to be based in gratitude, and gratitude needs to be based in love. The Holy Qur’an tells us time and time again to continue giving thanks for what we have, and we can now begin to see the wisdom behind that command. Sometimes, when we cannot see the immediate results of our prayers, we think that we have failed. But one thing that Dr. Emoto's photographs show is that the mere thought of failure itself becomes represented in the physical objects that surround us. Upon reading this short article, perhaps we can begin to realise that even when immediate results are invisible to the unaided human eye, they are there. When we love our own bodies, they respond. When we express our love to God and other fellow human beings, they respond. And now we have seen before our eyes the proof that water is far from inanimate – it is actually alive and responsive to our every thought and emotion. Perhaps, having seen this, we can begin to really understand the tremendous power that we possess, and through choosing our thoughts and intentions, we can heal ourselves and the earth. If only we believe.
“The cure is within you but you do not see. The illness is from you but you do not realise. Do you think you are but an insignificant mass, whilst within you lies a great universe?”-- Imam Ali (AS)
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Why Do We Cry? A Scientific Perspective
By Dr Abbas and Dr Israh Tejani
As the new Islamic year commences, we begin the year 1434 with days of mourning. Indeed, throughout the year, we are encouraged to mourn, be it during the days of shahadat or when repenting to Allah (SWT). Though we understand the spiritual benefits of crying, could it be that there are physical benefits to our bodies from the act of crying?
In science, we can broadly categorise tears into three main types: Basal tears, irritation tears and emotional tears.
Basal tears are the tears, or liquid, that coats our eye on a blink-by-blink basis. They contain antibodies and enzymes that defend against disease-causing microbes and bacteria that the eye encounters. Basal tears, like all tears, have numerous components. A little bit of mucus allows them to adhere to the eye surface without causing harm. The main part of a tear contains water and salts (like sodium chloride and potassium chloride). The ratio of salt to water in tears is similar to that of the rest of the body. If the body's salt concentration climbs too high, it will take advantage of these tears and increase the salt concentration within these tears.
Our eyes produce irritant tears when hit by wind or sand (or any other foreign body). Irritant, or reflex, tears have the same constituents as basal tears, and work toward the same goal: protecting the eyes. However, since they are designed to break down and eliminate eyeball-intruders like airborne dust, these tears tend to flow in greater amounts and contain a greater concentration of antibodies and enzymes that target micro-organisms. Thus, irritant tears are not just basal tears in greater quantity; different biological processes precede the excretion of the two types of solution.
The voluminous tears that so rapidly move us to frustration or pity are, of course, emotional tears and this is what most of this article will look at. Aside from the constitution of salt, water and enzymes, emotional tears have been found to also contain large amounts of hormones associated with stress. These hormones include prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), Leucine-Enkephalin and manganese. If these are not excreted at all, they would build up to toxic levels in the blood that could weaken the body's immune system and other biological processes. But here, as in other areas, the body has its own mechanisms of coping. We secrete stress hormones when we sweat and when we cry. Clearly, then, it is physically very healthy to cry, regardless of whether or not it feels awkward or embarrassing socially. When going through a stressful time or a bereavement, people frequently report feeling better after crying and this is doubtlessly connected to the discharge of stress-related hormones; some of the hormones excreted in tears are even associated with the experience of physical pain, rendering weeping a physiologically pain-reducing process.
Prolactin, is found in much higher concentration in women's bodies than in men's. Interestingly, prolactin appears to not only be secreted in tears but also to play a role in the formation of tears. Levels of prolactin in the body correlate positively with frequency of emotional crying; as a whole, women cry more often than men (perhaps four times as often, according to one study) and women also have a lot more prolactin than men (60% more). The levels of prolactin in one's system provide a threshold effect, affecting how easily emotional tears are shed in response to a given stimulus. The fact that men's tear glands are, as a whole, structurally smaller than women's supports the notion that they are used less – perhaps, therefore, one can argue that there is a physiological reason why women are more likely to cry than men.
Dr. William Frey, a biochemist in Minnesota, has researched the chemical content of human tears. One of the substances found in tears was the stress hormone ACTH. Shedding tears helps to reduce excessive amounts of ACTH and other substances that accumulate following a stressful event. Dr. Frey has suggested that the purpose of emotional crying may be to remove waste products from the body, similar to other excretory processes such as urinating, defecating, exhaling, and sweating. Frey's conclusion is that "we may increase our susceptibility to a variety of physical and psychological problems when we suppress our tears." Crying not only removes toxins from the body but also reduces tension.
Studies on adults in psychotherapy have found lower blood pressure, pulse rate, and body temperature in patients immediately following therapy sessions during which they cried and raged. Similar changes were not observed in a control group of people who merely exercised for an equivalent period of time.
A study was performed in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1973 to 1986 on the effects of both suppressing one’s grief and crying on patients’ long-term health. This study was carried out on 7,000 patients. The results showed that cancer and heart disease were most prevalent in the group who had suppressed their grief for two years or more and least frequent in the group who had no restriction on their amount of crying. This showed an almost protective effect of crying on developing these conditions.
Putting the science into an Islamic perspective
Countless studies (more studies than we have space to write about) have shown that crying in an emotional state not only acts as a psychological stress reliever, but also improves the biochemical composition of our bodies (i.e., it helps to make our bodies healthier at the microscopic level). In the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) emphasises the importance of crying in numerous verses, including one of the more well-known verses: “Indeed, Allah (SWT) loves those who repent.” (2:222).
When we now look at Muharram and Safar, we see that during these days, one is encouraged to reflect on the tragedies that befell Imam Hussain (AS) and his family and to shed tears in grief. When listening to the noble and heroic sacrifice of Imam Hussain (AS) and the brutal massacre of the family of the Prophet (SAW) our eyes cannot help but shed tears for Imam Hussain (AS). This not only helps us spiritually, but also confers a physical and physiological benefit to our bodies.
Through reading this article, one will realise that alongside the multitude of spiritual benefits that one can obtain from crying, be it in repentance or on the sacrifice of Imam Hussain (AS), there are also a huge number of physical benefits of crying. Indeed, not only has our Master Hussain (AS) given the ultimate sacrifice by laying down his life to protect Islam, through his martyrdom he has also created a means to improve our physical health through crying over his tragedy. We can now begin to understand what Imam Hussain (AS) meant in his final farewell to Imam Sajjad (AS) when he said: “When you return to Madinah and you meet my Shi’a, let them know that on the plains of Karbala, your Maula (AS) was remembering you tremendously.”
“Surely, there is a burning heat in the hearts of the believers with respect to the killing of Husain that will never cool down” – Imam Jaffar as-Sadiq (AS)