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All the processes involved in the replication of DNA take place at such an astonishing pace that 3,000 nucleotide steps are produced in one minute. Fifty base pairs are copied in only a second.90 Meanwhile, the enzymes responsible check all the steps many times over and make the necessary corrections.
For a better idea of the enormous speed at which the process of DNA replication occurs, the division of a cell lasts between 20 and 80 minutes, during which time the information in the DNA also must be copied and reproduced. All the 3 billion pieces of information in the DNA have to be able to be copied in between 20 and 80 minutes, with no errors, omissions or gaps. This is as miraculous as the copying an entire library of information, or 1,000 books, or a text of one million pages, in that same space of time - again with no errors or omissions.
Moreover, it is not highly advanced technological devices or highly developed photocopying machines that accomplish this, but enzymes consisting of combinations of various atoms.
Due to external factors, a great many errors may be made in the new DNA molecule produced at such a great speed. Ribosomes in the cell now begin manufacturing DNA-repair enzymes in the light of the instruction reaching them from DNA. This means that the DNA has taken the necessary steps to protect itself! Like the human beings they constitute, cells are born, multiply and die. However, the lifespan of cells is very much shorter than that of the human beings. For example, the vast majority of the cells that made up your body six months ago are no longer alive. Yet since they gradually divided and were replaced by new ones, you remain alive and well today. That is why events such as cell multiplication and the replication of DNA are so vitally important to human life and offer no room for even the slightest error.
One astonishing aspect of all this is that the enzymes that ensure the production of DNA and also supervise its structure are proteins produced at the command of that same DNA, under the control of the information contained within it. It is absolutely impossible for it to have assumed this magnificently convoluted system as the result of gradual, random coincidences, because DNA has to exist for the enzyme to appear. But also, the enzyme must exist for DNA, and all the organelles in the cell must be present to permit the existence of both.
As you can see from this summarized information, the elements in your body accomplish all their tasks successfully and completely. Allah has placed countless atoms and molecules, from the very largest to the very smallest, at our service in order for us to be able to live healthy lives. In one verse He reveals that:
… Allah pours out His favor on humanity, but most people do not show thanks. (Surah Ghafir, 61)
To whom actually belongs the intelligence and knowledge that realizes that a replication of the DNA must be made during cell division, which carry out the replication process in such a flawless manner, and which establish such a magnificent system capable of immediately rectifying processing errors? It would be completely illogical to say that such a flawless organization developed as the result of chance. Even were you to combine all the atoms in the universe, providing all the necessary conditions you could still never produce a system that carries out DNA replication by chance. It is abundantly clear that Allah, Almighty and Omniscient, created such a flawless system and has continued to maintain it for millions of years. This fact is also revealed in a verse from the Qur'an:
What is in the heavens and in the Earth belongs to Allah. Allah encompasses all things. (Surat an-Nisa, 126)
References
- http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/D/DNAReplication.html ↩