What you say, said he, was already known to me but we physicians hold the opinion, that the person who invented the science, performed postmortem examinations, when the patient was not
cured of his disease, and thus examined the blood vessels passages and places and located the traces of the medicines.
Do you not know, I asked, that the medicines taken internally circulate with the blood throughout the body, and become mixed up with it? "Yes I know it, he replied.
"Don't you know, I asked again, that when a person dies, his blood thickness?
Yes it does, he replied.
Then, I asked, "How did the physician examine the medicine, when it was clotted in the blood, for all trace was surely lost, and in such a state could not be analyzed
properly?"
I am at my wit's end now," he said. Again tell me, how the people were able to now the beneficial effects of the roots and plants they had investigated and their locations? How did they
learn to analyze and mix them together, ascertain their respective weights, and discover the need of gall bladders and stones in certain medicines?
You have discussed the subject with such perfection, said he, that I have neither the imagination nor thought nor wit to find a way of properly answering your question. As these
prescriptions have not invented themselves, they must have been invented by some one else and that same one else must have acquired a thorough knowledge of the natures and qualities of the items
he had laced in such order.
Will you kindly explain to me how the people were able to know those medicines that were beneficial to health, and how they could investigate these things in every part of the world? Since
you wish me to explain it to you, said I, I shall give you an illustration, and discuss it in such a wax that you will easily learn who the inventor of medicine was, who created the various kinds
of plants and fruit? And who made the body and blood vessels, which carry the medicine through it to its affected parts.
If you will do so, he said, I shall be very glad indeed.
Supposing, said I, a certain man had planted a garden surrounded by a wall to protect it from outside harm. Do you not think the owner would know every tree planted therein and its
position? After a time the trees began to bear fruits, and all smallest vegetation also bloomed, In the meantime you happened to go there, and desired the owner to bring you certain fruits and
vegetable pods. The owner went to do so. Were you not in that case sure that he would go straight to the exact place, where the desired fruits add pods grew, knowing perfectly well where they
were,-in a near or a distant part of the garden? You know he would not waste time puzzling over their whereabouts Yes, he said; he would undoubtedly find the places easily.
But if the owner, said I, "instead of going himself asked you to go into the garden, and pluck the desired things for yourself, could you have gone straight for them without looking
earnestly here and there".
"I could not have done so, he said, without knowing the proper places.
"Supposing, said I "you reached these places after some considerable exertion and trouble. For instance you touched and examined each and every tree till you found out the desired one, but
if you failed to detect that tree, you would be forced to return empty-handed.
I don't see how I could find out the whereabouts for a tree, of whose position I had no knowledge, said he.
Seeing, said I how helpless your senses are in guiding you, surely your mind tells you that he who planted this large garden which extends from east to west, and north to south, must have
taught that wise man, whom you considered to have invented the science of medicine. Can you not easily understand that the names of the medicine and the cities wherein they could be found, were
shown to the wise man by Him, and that He must have been as well versed in the location of the vegetable world as the owner himself (as the owner of that garden I instanced to you). It is
reasonable to say that He, who taught the exact whereabouts of the tree that grew in the garden, was He who planted them; and He Who taught their advantages, disadvantages, and weights and was
also that Self-same person.
"Your reasoning, said he, seems to be flawless.
If the creator of body of man, said I, with its nerves, veins and intestines through which the medicines course from head to foot were not the same person as the creator of this garden,
would that creator have know and made known to man the existence of those trees and herbs, their proportion in medicine and their necessity to the well-being of man? Would that creator know that
such medicines were particularly beneficial to certain diseases and had such and such effect on certain nerve?"
How could he know these things?" He said.
These things are not known through the medium of senses. So if man is aware of them it must be through the teaching of Him, who created the garden of the world, for He alone could know the
effected and nature of that which He created.
Then, said I "does it not follow that the vegetable and the animal world would have one and the same creator? If there had existed two creators, one for human beings and their ailments, and
the other for the vegetable world, the first would have no knowledge of medicines and the diseases they cure, and the other similarly would have no knowledge of the plants and trees by which
medicines are made; but if the creator of the animal, and vegetable world be one and the same, it would be easy for him to know the medicine for the particular disease. He would be fully aware of
the nature of medicine and its exact weight and effect on the body-whether it would affect a cure to the brain, feet or some other part of the human body. For having created both the medicine and
the body he is cognizant of the science of both.
"You are really right, he said, "If there were two different creators, each would have been ignorant of the science of the other.
"Then, said I. "He who taught the wise man, whom you consider to be the inventor of this science, and established it is the creator of the garden of the world. He created the human body. He
informed the wise man (who was prophet like Luqman or Dawood) the nature of all plants and trees, their location and surroundings, attributes such as leaves and veins, oily substances branches,
bark and fruits. He taught him the use and nature of medicine and the weight to be used.
He made all the beasts and birds of the world together with those gall bladders which are also necessary to medicine. If the creator of birds and beasts had been different from he, who
created the man and the vegetable world, he would never have known the effects of the gall bladders, which should be mixed with vegetable medicine;
and which not; but as He was the creator of all, He knew their actions, attributes and names, which knowledge He imparted to the wise prophet, and this is how the wise man came to know the
advantages and the disadvantages of medicines belonging to the vegetable and animal kingdom. In no other way could He have known all those things. In truth he must have been some Prophet or
Apostle taught by the most august omnipotent glorious Allah of the Universe.
What you say is quite right, he said, Before your eloquence all reasoning of the senses and so called experience pale into insignificance. Since you have admitted so much, said I, Let us go
a step further, and with our senses reason whether it was advisable for Him who planted the world's garden, and created the animal world for the benefit of the human race, to scatter all these
things in the land belonging to some other person than himself If He did so, He could not have carried any experiment of any sort upon His belongings except by the other's permission. Don't you
think so?
Yes, he replied. The earth, on which this garden is planted, must have also been created by Him who created the garden, plants, trees and animals.
