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In every cell in your body lies a glorious treasure house of information, written in a language spoken by nobody on Earth,. The alphabet of this language consists of just four letters, and each letter stands for a chemical molecule known as a base or nucleotide. The genetic "words" known as codons are made up of these letters. This DNA language of just four letters consists of the molecules adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, or the letters A, T, G and C for short. All the information contained in the data bank within the nucleus is encoded in this four-letter alphabet. When hundreds of the letters A, T, G and C are taken together, the result is long, meaningful "sentences" known as genes, which describe how the processes in the body should take place and give instructions regarding them. Millions of these "letters" set out in a meaningful sequence one after the other comprise the DNA molecule. In his book Our Molecular Nature, the molecular biologist David S. Goodsell refers to the DNA molecule as. . . perhaps the most beautiful of our molecules, but like a fine book, its true beauty lies not in binding, but in the words written within.66
All of a person's physical characteristics have been encoded by means of this special language and stored in the cell nucleus. An organism's body shape, the vital functions of all its organs and the organization of how those organs function, the genetic codes and amounts of proteins that need to be produced within the cell are all encoded in DNA. This enormous code contains information about a person's entire body, ever since it was no more than a single cell. To put it another way, before the individual even became a human being, a comprehensive blueprint for the entire body was ready in a single molecule.
When referring to the nucleic acids that make up DNA in the cell nucleus, we shall continue to use the letter analogy. These letters, as we explained earlier, come together in specific pairs to form the "steps" on the staircase. By being added one on top the next, these steps then constitute genes. Every gene in part of the DNA molecule controls specific human features. Height, eye color, the structure of the nose, ears and skull, and countless other characteristics all come into being by the commands of relevant genes. We may compare these genes to the pages of a book written with only the letters A, T, G and C.
There are some 30,000 genes in a human cell's DNA. Every gene consists of between 1,000 and 186,000 nucleotides arranged in a particular sequence, depending on the kind of protein to which it corresponds. These genes contain the codes for some 200,000 proteins that operate inside the human body, and also regulate the production of those same proteins. The information contained by these 30,000 genes represents only 3% of the total information that DNA contains. The data in the remaining 97% is still unknown, but it has been established that this portion contains information essential to the activities of the cell. (For more detail, see the Chapter 12, "How the Miracle of DNA Invalidates the Theory of Evolution.")
Genes exist inside chromosomes, and there are 46 chromosomes in the nucleus of every human cell (apart from the reproductive cells). To compare every chromosome to a volume consisting of pages in the form of genes, then we can say that in each cell, there is a 46-volume cellular encyclopedia containing all of a human being's characteristics. As we've already made clear, this cellular encyclopedia contains an amount of information equivalent to a 920-volume Encyclopedia Britannica.
The arrangement of the letters in every individual's DNA is different. That is why all the people who have ever lived have been different from one another. The basic structure and functions of the organs are the same in everyone. Yet everyone is specially created with such fine differences and in such a detailed manner that although all human beings develop the same basic structure through the division of a single cell, the result is still billions of people with wholly different appearances.
The arrangement of the letters in DNA determines a person's characteristics, right down to the tiniest details. In addition to features such as height and the colors of one's eye, hair and skin color, blueprints for the 206 bones in the body, 600 muscles, a 10,000-component network of hearing nerves, 2 million-part network of optic nerves, 100 billion nerve cells, blood vessels 130,000,000,000 meters (80,780,000 miles) in length and 100 trillion cells all exist in the DNA in a single cell. The Canadian science writer Denyse O'Leary refers to the information in DNA:
The truly puzzling type of information is the type that is characteristics of human artifacts, and is also written in our DNA. It does not follow a repetitive pattern. But it has a pattern that relates it to other information and it is complex. For example, the DNA in a cat embryo is a complex series of instructions for a kitten that the embryo is carrying out.67
Since not even a single word cannot form in the absence of a writer, how did the billions of "letters" in the human genome come into existence? How have these letters been arranged in a meaningful way to constitute the matchless blueprint for such perfect and complex bodies? The slightest alteration to the arrangement of these letters could lead to us having fingers on our feet, eyes in our stomachs or heads facing backwards. Our arms might be longer or shorter than they actually are, or our lips might be sealed together. If we currently exist as normal human beings, that is only through the permission of our Almighty Lord. Allah has made the arrangement in the letters in every human being's DNA the means whereby this comes about. In one verse, He informs us that:
He is Allah-the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and Earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Hashr, 24)