  
Pearls: Dazzling Jewels Of The Sea
 On Earth,
wherever one turns his eyes and looks, one meets a magnificent
creation, a perfect design with amazing features. The examples
we give throughout this book are only a few small details
of this magnificence. Allah has created many plant and animal
species on Earth whose appearances are splendid. He has brought
everything into existence in a way that man finds pleasure
in. Along with these, many ornaments have been created on
Earth by Allah and have been given into the service of men.
The pearl, which is one of these ornaments, has very interesting
features besides its outstanding beauty.
The developmental phases of the pearl are amazing. The pearl
is generally produced by the "pearl oyster," of
which many kinds exist. The shells of oysters are quite hard.
The composition of their outer shells, which are very difficult
to open, is calcium carbonate-based and deters many of their
enemies. The calcium carbonate also plays an important role
in the oyster's formation of pearls.
The oyster is irritated when sand, a pebble or harmful parasitic
organisms enter inside of it. In such situations, it isolates
the uninvited guest, as a method of protection, and begins
to cover it with nacre. This covering process is the first
phase of the formation of the pearl. The foreign particles
entering the oyster serve as a nucleus for the formation of
the pearls. Through the years, the surface of this nuclear
substance will be covered with calcium carbonate layers forming
one on the top of the other.
How is the nacre inside the oyster made? There are two main
ingredients that form the nacre among the layers of the oyster's
inner tissues. In one layer is a mineral called "aragonite,"
the content of which is calcium carbonate; in another layer
is an adhesive substance "conchiolin," which holds
the aragonite together in the pearl. Since aragonite is a
semi-transparent substance, it gives the pearl a shiny look.
It is surely thought provoking that these two substances are
produced by the oyster (a composition of shell and flesh that
doesn't even have a brain) and then they come together and
form such a beautiful object as a pearl by covering a mere
dust particle. The pearl that an oyster produces for the purpose
of protection is created as an aesthetic ornament for man.
Allah draws attention to the pearl with the verse in the Qur'an
"From out of them come glistening
pearls and coral." (Surat ar-Rahman: 22) Furthermore,
the pearl is also mentioned in the Qur'an as one of the ornaments
of Paradise.
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