surah al-kahf and hibernation

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    In beloved memory

    Of my parents

    Muhammad Nesar

    and

    Ahmadi Begum

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    SurahAlKAHF

    CHAPTER2.

    THE COMPANIONS OF THE CAVE AND HOW THEY SPENT THREE HUNDRED AND NINE (309) YEARS IN THE CAVE (18.25).

    HIBERNATION OR TORPOR

    One of the many reasons we find ourselves disconnected from the Qur'an is due to us losing this ability to ponder and reflect over the greatest of Speech. The Pagan Arabs for all their polytheistic beliefs and enmity to Islam were overwhelmed by the linguistic beauty and poetry of the Qur'an. Indeed, even the most formidable of creations such as the mountains cannot withstand its power.

    I have been researching the Tafsr of Srah al-Kahf, the eighteenth chapter of the Qur'an. Yet despite days and days of study and reading, the beauty of this srah never

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    ceases to amaze me. It was from amongst the early portions of the Qur'an to be revealed as is mentioned in the adth of the Prophet allallhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allh be upon him). Here I want to analyze the scientific notion conveyed to us more than 1500 years ago and Western scholars took no time to label it as a fairy tale which remained to them a fairy tale for more than 1400 years, only in the last century Western scientists admitted that it the torpor phenomenon as described in this surah is possible in human beings.

    The story of the people of the cave centers on a group of believing young men who lived in a society of shirk, wherein those young men were persecuted for their beliefs, but they stood firm upon their beliefs, addressing their despot ruler and their people. This is one of the most common trials the believers face; trials to do with their faith. At its most extreme, it can lead to persecution and torture, but there are many other forms it can take. Derogatory remarks, uncomfortable stares and sometimes a deficiency complex when having to openly show our religion in front of others are all forms many of us have experienced. At times, it can be our own family and friends who attempt to dissuade us when we want to increase in our attempts to practice Islam. IN MAMMALS, "hibernation" is a state of suspended animation, with profound reductions in metabolism, oxygen consumption and heart rate. "Suspended animation" refers to the slowing or stopping of life processes by exogenous or endogenous means but without termination.

    (Nation Center for Biotechnology Information, USA).

    Hibernation happens from genes being turned on and offmuch like a light switchin very unique patterns throughout the year to modulate physiology. And, importantly, these genes are shared among the entire mammal family tree. They are not genes that evolved specifically for hibernation. Therefore, it seems as though all mammalsincluding humansmight actually have the genetic capacity for hibernation. It's literally written in our DNA.

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    There have been a singular examples in the media that suggest that this theory might hold water, including documented cases of people entering into something that looks intriguingly like hibernation. For example, back in April 2014, a young man stowed away in the wheel well of an airplane from California to Hawaii. At that altitude (and those bone-chilling temperatures and low oxygen levels) he should have died (and won the Darwin award posthumously). But, he didn't. He walked away from that very lucky incident just fine and dandy. Was it human hibernation? It's a very compelling notion and seemingly quite feasible once you boil it down to the As, Ts, Cs, and Gs that make up our genetic code.

    The whole issue is convoluted by how our environment affects genes that are being expressed. Animals that hibernate are at the mercy of their environment, using hibernation to avoid periods of cold weather or resource scarcity, when other behaviors like migrating to warmer environments or staying active during the winter might be more energetically costly for them. Humans have used our massive brains to figure out how to manipulate our environments. We build shelters, we use various means to provide warmth, and we have grocery stores that cater to our every need even in winter. So, our environments would never prime our genome to respond to the winter months in such a way, even despite having the capability to do so.

    In 2005, though, a German team of researchers collected the first evidence of prolonged hibernation in fat-tailed dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus medius). That discovery raised the very intriguing possibility that other primates, like humans, that dont normally hibernate might be able to pull off the same trick. Lemurs are much closer to us, genetically, than other hibernating animals are. And thats important, because if we want to understand how hibernation works in a way that might someday help people, it pays to study hibernation in an animal thats as close to us as possible. Peter Klopfer, one of the founders of the Duke Lemur Center, when asked what the secret to primate hibernation is? We dont really know, he admits. But, we have hypotheses He pronounces this last word very, very carefully, enunciating every syllable, in a way that seems to convey just how difficult and laborious this process is. One of the most promising, he says, seems to be ghrelin, a 28-amino acid peptide (very small protein). The most important thing to know about ghrelin is that also it occurs in humans. The name ghrelin is derived from the proto-Indo-European linguistic root ghre: to grow.) It has effects on the hypothalamus that induce hunger, for instance. It also reduces satiety, meaning that we eat more before we feel full. So maybe decreased levels of ghrelin induce hibernation. Low ghrelin levels would lead to decreased hunger, torpor, and a generally reduced metabolism.

    And, to be fair, there are many other molecules that might cause suspended animation. For instance, theres hydrogen sulfide, the gas that comes from sewage and rotten eggs. Theres also a molecule called adenosine monophosphate, or AMP, that some researchers think might induce hibernation in animals like mice and dogs, which dont normally hibernate.

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    In fact, there are some scientists who believe that AMP molecules hold the key to hibernation in humans. Thats based on some fascinating research by Cheng Chi Lee, a biologist at the University of Texas in Houston. Cheng has found that when AMP is injected into mice, and theyre placed in a cool cage, their metabolism drops by more than 90 percent. Their heartbeat and breathing slow to almost nothing, and they feel cold to the touch. But then the AMP wears off in a few minutes and the mouse warms up, wakes up, and walks away.

    Currently, humans do not have the ability to hibernate. Hibernation is defined as seasonal periods (typically winter) when an animal undergoes bouts of "torpor"that is, periods of depressed metabolism when physiological parameters like body temperature, heart rate, and breathing fall below "normal" values. Torpor enables organisms to conserve energy when food is less available and air temperatures are low, making it more costly to maintain normal metabolism and high body temperature. We have evolved such that survival during challenging environmental conditions like winter is achieved without having to resort to entering torpor states for energy conservation

    But there are good reasons why humans might want to enter into states of torpor, or even full hibernation. The major one is for medical reasons. In conditions like shock, massive blood loss, cardiac arrest, and certain types of surgical procedures, the ability to slow down metabolism and lower body temperature may extend survival time for patients and prevent life-threatening side effects like ischemic damage and inflammation.

    Use of torpor and hibernation in humans may also aid our ability to travel to distant regions of space by reducing the need to pack enough food for journeys that take monthsor yearsto complete, and to minimize dangers like radiation damage to the body (Hannah Carey, Ph.D. Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison).

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    Surgeons from the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are set to begin suspended animation trials by dramatically cooling down trauma victims in an effort to keep them alive during critical operations.

    Twenty years ago, Peter Safar and Ron Bellamy proposed that the rapid induction of hypothermia could "buy time" for a trauma surgical team to control bleeding. Now, thanks to the work of Peter Rhee and Samuel Tisherman, this idea is officially ready for prime time.

    EPR-CAT

    "We are suspending life, but we don't like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction," noted Tisherman in a New Scientist article. "So we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation." The idea is to buy patients precious time during critical operations, such as after a massive heart attack, stabbings, or shootings. The technique will be used on 10 patients who would otherwise be expected to die from their injuries. The doctors on the project will be paged when a candidate patient arrives at the hospital; there's usually one case like this every month, typically with survival rates less than 7%.

    It is part a feasibility and safety study, called the Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation for Cardiac Arrest from Trauma (EPR-CAT). Because patients cannot give informed consent, the study will be conducted under the exception-from-informed consent process, which includes community consultation and public notification.

    How It Works

    This technique involves internal rather than external cooling. A team of surgeons will remove all of the patient's blood, replacing it with a cold saline solution; the cold fluid is administered through a large tube, called a cannula, which is placed into the aorta, the largest artery in the body. This will slow down the body's metabolic functions, significantly reducing its need for oxygen. Then, a heart-lung bypass machine will be used to restore blood circulation and oxygenation as part of the resuscitation process. A state of profound hypothermia will be induced, at about 50F (10C), to provide a "prolonged period of cardiac arrest" after extensive bleeding. In other words, clinical death.

    The technique, which was developed by Peter Rhee, was successfully tested on pigs back in 2000 (his resulting study can be found here). Writing in CNet, Michelle Starr explains more:

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    The technique, therefore, will only be used as an emergency measure on patients who have suffered cardiac arrest after severe traumatic injury, with their chest cavity open and having lost at least half their blood already injuries that see only a seven percent survival rate. The survival rate of these patients will then be measured against a control group that has not received the treatment before further testing can begin.

    The human body can only be placed in this state for a few hours, so we're still quite a ways off from the suspended animation typically featured in scifi. But if this technique is any indication, we may get there just yet.

    Who

    Members of at least six mammalian orders are capable of exhibiting torpor. Some examples are echidna of Monotremata, many dasyurids of Marsupialia, tenrecs, shrews of the subfamily Crocidurinae, hedgehogs of Insectivora, many bats of both sub-orders Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera, dwarf and mouse lemurs of Primates and the various sciurids, cricetids, heteromyids, murids and zapodids of Rodentia.

    But the most important aspect is that most mammals hibernate in cold places, like dug up big holes or caves. See pics below, does not it reminds you of the cave from the story of the People of the Cave in surah Al-Kahf.

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    SEASONAL TORPOR is represented by aestivation and hibernation, and is characterized by subsequent torpor bouts of several days or weeks generally concentrated into one torpor season which can last many months. In fact, the seasonal torpor never spans the entire hibernating season, but it is interrupted by periodic arousals and brief normothermic periods (French, 1985, 1988). Some common groups which exhibit seasonal torpor include the hedgehogs (Erinaceous), marmots and woodchucks (Marmota), ground squirrels (Spermophilus or Citellus) and bats (Eptesicus and Myotis). In these animals two distinct states can be identified annually: a non-hibernating phase, during which body weight is relatively constant and exposure to cold results in both increased heat production and maintenance of euthermia, and a hibernating phase, during which a drastic, rapid weight gain occurs, and the exposure to cold results in hibernation with body temperature capable of decreasing to near 0C.

    NON-SEASONAL TORPOR is a torpor inducible at any time of the year by proper stimuli (i.e. cold and/or food shortage). A typical form of non-seasonal torpor is the daily torpor, with a duration of less than 24 hours and a body temperature decrease generally to 10C-25C (considerably higher than that found during hibernation). Moreover, the daily torpor appears to be integrated into the normal circadian rhythm of activity and rest, although the torpor is not restricted only to the normal rest phase of the animal

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    (Krtner and Geiser, 2000). Several groups, such as marsupials, insectivores, chiropterans, primates and rodents, contain members which exhibit daily torpor.

    A hibernating chipmunk (from M.Himbealut).

    A controversy concerns whether the WINTER SLEEP in bears can be considered a true hibernating state. During winter dormancy, which lasts from 3 to 7 months, bears do not eat, drink, defecate or urinate and they use fat exclusively as their energy and water source. The bear hibernates at a near normal body temperature ranging from 31C to 35C, its metabolic rate decreases to 50-60% of the euthermic level and heart rate drops from 40 to 10 beats/minute. This metabolic depression is much less than that found even in the daily torpor. In addition, unlike torpid animals, when disturbed the bear is easily aroused into a mobile, reactive state, able to defend itself, and female bears give birth and nurse cubs during denning. However, calculation based on theoretical considerations between body size, fat reserve and energy requirement under fasting condition have demonstrated that the shallow torpid state of the bear is optimal for this animal to survive during denning.

    When the environment becomes too hostile for an animal, they have to find a way to cope. Some animals migrate out of the area others enter an inactive state, which they stay in until conditions suit them better.

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    HUMANS

    When a human is exposed to low environmental temperatures, body temperature begins to fall and hypothermia ensues; the homeostatic mechanism of shivering fails at body temperature of 30-32 C, the heart fibrillates at about 28 C and ventilation stops at about 23 C (Ivanov, 2000). Albeit deep hypothermia is regularly achieved during major surgery requiring extracorporeal circulation (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/advancing-torpor-inducing-transfer-habitats-for-human-stasis-to-mars).

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    THE COMPANIONS OF THE CAVE AND HOW THEY SPENT THREE HUNDRED AND NINE (309) YEARS IN THE CAVE

    Atlanta-based SpaceWorks Enterprises is currently working on a cryogenic application for NASA. Their solution involves mimicking torpor or short-term hibernation as its also called. Some mammalian animals use it, so its not entirely implausible for this to work for humans as well. The plan is to build a torpor statis habitat inside a spaceship where the astronauts can hibernate for much of their voyage. Inside the pressurized chamber up to six crew members could co-exist in the low metabolic state simultaneously. Torpor would be induced by an assisted hypothermic state in which the body is gradually cooled, all while attached sensors to the astronauts body monitor their condition and trigger automatic safety mechanisms in case something goes wrong. Food would be administered intravenously through TPN or total parenteral nutrition. A catheter would be inserted to drain urine and thus handle all the generated waste, since bowel is

    virtually rendered inactive because theres only liquid nutrition. Waking up out of cryogenic sleep after 6 months of slumber might sound like the worst hangover in the universe, so electromagnetic muscle stimulation would keep away muscle atrophy.

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    Do you consider that the Companions of the Cave and Ar-Raqim were one of the most remarkable of Our Signs? (Surat al-Kahf, 9).

    They stayed in their Cave for three hundred years and added nine. (Surat al-Kahf, 25). In revealing how long the Companions spent in the cave, the Qur'an says "They stayed in their Cave for three hundred years and added nine." (Surat al-Kahf, 25) In interpreting this verse, commentators say that the Companions of the Cave slept for 300 solar years or 309 years by the lunar calendar.

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    The number of syllables up to "sineena waizdadoo," meaning "number of years" is exactly 309.36

    There are 309 undotted letters in the Surah up to the term "sineena waizdadoo".

    Then We woke them up again so that we might see which of the two groups would better calculate the time they had stayed there. (Surat al-Kahf, 12)

    This verse reveals that the reason the Companions of the Cave were woken was to establish which of the two groups would most accurately calculate how long they had been asleep. The number of syllables before this verse is exactly 309.37

    They stayed in their Cave for three hundred years and added nine. (Surat al-Kahf, 25)

    The way that the Qur'an does not directly state that the Companions of the Cave spent 309 years in the cave but also adds an additional 9 years is exceedingly wise. This mode of expression thus draws attention to the difference between the solar and lunar years. (Allah knows the truth.)

    The solar year refers to the Earth's revolution around the Sun, and 365.242217 complete revolutions of the Earth constitute a solar year. A lunar year consists of 354.36768 days, the time in which the Moon orbits the Earth 12 times. There is thus a difference of 10.874537 days between the solar and lunar years; 100 solar years is thus equivalent to 103 lunar years.

    In order to determine the equivalent of 300 solar years in terms of lunar years, we need to add on 9 more years just as in the verse.

    When you look at the Cave, you will be amazed at how its 90 meters were created to accommodate such a righteous company. First, the cave was designed as would an air-conditioned apartment be designed. There is a reception ahead of where they slept their 300 years. Then there is an opening in the cave, allowing the entry of air and sunlight. The opening faced the South-East as if designed to be away from the sun during the day, but allow the light flow of sun rays and warmth around dusk. Which trustee could have designed a palace to conserve people for 300 years, to take care of them, as did The Ultimate Trustee?

    If a human could be placed into a very deep sleep instead, they wouldnt need entertainment, food and water could be strictly controlled by intravenous drips, and the energy required to keep them alive would be lowered significantly. Therefore, its obviously a highly desirable thing to do.

    The focus of this study is on torpor: a kind of hibernation state that sees body temperature and metabolic rate decrease. Some animals already naturally go into a torpor state on a regular basis and humans can if suffering from hypothermia. But NASA wants to try and safely adapt it for humans and extend it to 180 days. If it can, it would bring us a step closer to sending a team of astronauts to Mars. "We're not freezing anybody," said Bradford of NASA. "It's not cryopreservation; it's closer to hibernation.

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    So they're still breathing, and they still need sustenance." It's called a hypothermic torpor. Ideally, the coma would be induced by letting the spaceship cool down in the freezing cold of space bringing the astronauts' body temperatures down, too.

    Or to say just like those young people of the cave who slept for 300 years.

    The big challenge is the time extension, with a week being the best achieved so far. Theres also going to be a major health monitoring hurdle to overcome. What if something goes wrong during the journey to Mars? NASA will need the ability to monitor in real-time and adjust the torpor state remotely or even wake up an astronaut if their health is at risk. Currently, 14 days is the longest a human being has been recorded surviving in stasis. To just get to the Red Planet our closest celestial neighbor aside from the Moon astronauts would need to be under for 10 times as long. With our present rocket technology, it takes 6-9 months to travel the 55 million kilometers between Earth and Mars.

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    Allah says what can be translated as, And you might have seen the sun when it rose, declining from their cave towards the right; and when it set, it went past them towards the left while they were in a broad fissure of (the cave). That was one of the signs of Allah. Whomever Allah guides, then he is right-guided, and whomever He leads away into error, then you will never find for him a right-minded patron. (TMQ, 18: 17). This was the first mercy bestowed on them.

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    Cold is at the heart of stasis. Cold slows the functioning of internal organs, dialing down the speed of the heart and metabolic systems. Youd need less sustenance and take up less space than a conscious person. And since youre unconscious, theres no risk of cabin fever (http://gizmodo.com/how-traveling-to-deep-space-in-cryogenic-sleep-could-ac-1725605323).

    Allah allowed them to sleep for 309 years, by muting their hearing! Allah says, Then We struck upon their ears for a (great) number of years in the cave, (TMQ, 18:11), and then says, And We turned them about towards the right and towards the left, (TMQ, 18:18). They were not dead, but only asleep. This is one of the very miraculous signs in this story.

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    Fourthly, noise and disturbance was prohibited around the Cave. The kings soldiers informed him where the young men were located, and they were ordered to block the apparent entrance of the Cave so he could get rid of the young men by suffocating them inside, but this was only another part of Allahs settings that the young men not be disturbed! And in no way does anyone know the hosts of your Lord except He, (TMQ, 74: 31). And they were scheming, and Allah was scheming; and Allah is The Most Charitable of schemers, (TMQ, 8: 30).

    This normally happens to those unconscious, as those bed-ridden in coma. Thus medical staff in hospitals will go in to coma patients and continuously turn them in bed to prevent ulcers of their backs and legs.

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    The young people who thought to have slept about "a day or part of a day" in the cave sent one of them to the city to buy some food with a silver coin. This shows that they were unaware of the long duration they have been asleep.

    Many people who are in a state of coma feel so. A mother waited 41 days for her injured son to come out of a coma - only for him to tell her to 'f*** off'. It was his way of telling her he was going to be OK. Joanne Hopkins leaned forward to hear son Joey whisper his first words since cheating death in a car smash. But, instead of a touching exchange, the 22-year-old swore at her. Mrs. Hopkins, 39, said she 'cried with relief'. 'He had been trying to speak but hadn't managed to get any words out,' she said (http://www.oddee.com/item_97859.aspx).

    For the unbelievers, it is a call to open their minds and hearts to word of Allah, the Holy Quran, and contemplate and ponder the last revelation to mankind. Yet, Allah remarks; Say, The truth is from your Lord; so let whosoever wishes believe, and let whosoever wishes disbelieve. (18: 29)