Nerve Endings in the Skin

Scientific Analysis

The prevalent belief prior to the age of scientific discovery was that the whole body could feel pain. It did not occur to anyone that there were certain nerves that transport sensation and pain to the brain. That was until the role of nerves in the skin was revealed to be so significant, due to the high concentration of nerve endings in the skin.

Sir Henry Head (1861-1940) classified the skin's sensitivity into two groups:

(1) The epicritic, which refers to light sensations, like a tender touch or a slight change in temperature; and,

(2) the protopathic, which refers to the feeling of pain and extreme changes in temperature.

Skin is the primary organ comprising of nerve endings.

Anatomists have shown that a person whose skin is completely burnt away will not feel pain, as his nerve endings have been destroyed. This differs with one who suffers a second degree burn, for example, as his nerve endings are exposed and transmit the pain in all its severity.

The Miracle

This verse explains that the skin is the part of the body that will feel the punishment. In other words, there must be a connection between the skin and pain.

Furthermore, we are told that once the skin is completely burnt, there will no longer be a feeling of pain. New skin then replaces the dead skin, so that pain can persist and the person who denied Allaah's Signs can be punished in permanence.

Modern science has discovered that the majority of nerve endings are found in the skin. Prior to the invention of the microscope and before advances were made in the study of anatomy, it was beyond anyone's capacity to know about this fact, which was so eloquently presented in the Quran fourteen centuries ago.

This is a certain miracle, showing the dominance of Allaah's Signs in science.