Page 47 - Allah is Known through Reason

born. 15 Sometimes sea turtles have to travel as far as 800 kilometres to
arrive there. But a long and tough journey does not change the situation.
They arrive at the beach where they were born to give birth to their off-
spring, no matter what.
It is quite unaccountable how a living being can find its way back to
the very same beach 20-25 years after its departure from there. 16 It is all
the more extraordinary that it can find the direction of its birthplace in the
depths of the ocean where so little light penetrates, and then spot it from
among numerous similar beaches.
Finally, thousands of travellers with no compass meet on the same
beach at the same time. Initially a mystery, the reasons underlying this
insistent meeting came as a great surprise when finally revealed. Since tur-
tles know that their offspring cannot survive in sea conditions, they bury
their eggs under the sand on the beach. But why do all of them meet on
the same beach, at the same time? Would not the hatchlings survive if they
did the same thing at different times and on different beaches? Those who
did research on this topic were faced with a very interesting situation.
Thousands of offspring under the sand have to overcome a number of for-

midable obstacles after breaking their eggs with the hard lump on their
head. The hatchlings of an average of 31 grams cannot dig the earth layer
above them on their own and they all help each other. When thousands
of hatchlings on the beach start to dig the earth, they make it to the sand
surface in a few days. Yet before they appear on the surface, they wait for
a while for nightfall. For in the day time, there is the danger of falling a
prey to predators. In addition, it would be quite difficult for them to pro-
ceed by crawling on sands scorched by the sunlight. When night falls, they
go up to the surface after completing the digging process. Although it is
dark, they rush to the sea and depart from the beach to return there as
much as 20-25 years later.
It is impossible for these hatchlings to know that they have to dig their
way up after they pop out of their eggs and wait for a while at a certain
distance from the sea. It is by no means possible for them to know, when

they are still buried in the earth, whether it is day or night, that predators

The Signs in the Heavens and on the Earth 47