No! If he does not stop, We will take him by the naseyah (forelock),
(Surah Al–Alaq (Chapter 96 – The Clot) verse 15)
a lying, sinful naseyah!
(Surah Al–Alaq (Chapter 96 – The Clot) verse 16)
Why did the Qur’án describe the front of the head as being lying and sinful?
Why didn’t the Qur’án emphasize that the “person” was lying and being sinful?
What is the relationship between the front of the head and lying and sinfulness?
If we look into the skull at the front of the forehead (or “naseyah” in Arabic) we will find the medically termed prefrontal area (or prefrontal cortex) of the cerebrum or big-brain (see the figure above).
What does physiology tell us about the function of this area?
A book entitled Essentials of Anatomy & Physiology says about this area, “The motivation and the foresight to plan and initiate movements occur in the anterior portion of the frontal lobes, the prefrontal area. This is a region of association cortex…” (1) Also the book says, “In relation to its involvement in motivation, the prefrontal area is also thought to be the functional centre for aggression….” (2)
So, this area of the cerebrum is responsible for planning, motivating, and initiating good and sinful behaviours and is responsible for the telling of lies and the speaking of truth. Thus, it is proper to describe the front of the head as lying and sinful when someone lies or commits a sin, as the Quran has said, “…A lying, sinful naseyah (front of the head)!”
Readers might think that I have personally concluded that it is the prefrontal cortex that is involved in lying. Well, the truth is that there are several scientific articles related on this. According to an article from 2005 (3) – originally from the British Journal of Psychiatry and by researchers from the University of Southern California – there occurs a heightening activity in the prefrontal cortex when normal people lie.
Using a so called MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to explore the structural brain differences between the groups, scientists discovered that liars had significantly more “white matter”, and slightly less “gray matter”, than the truthful subjects. In other words, pathological liars have a surplus of white matter and a deficit of gray matter, meaning they have more tools to lie, coupled with fewer moral restraints. When compared to the normal control subjects, liars had a 22 percent increase in white matter and a 14 percent decrease in prefrontal gray matter.
The interesting part is that these researchers are non-Moslems, they were westerners, yet they concluded the following: “Our argument is that the more networking there is in the prefrontal cortex, the more the person has an initiative in lying. Their verbal skills are higher. They’ve almost got a natural advantage,” said Raine. In normal people, it’s the gray matter – or the brain cells connected by the white matter – that helps keep the impulse to lie in check. “They’ve got the equipment to lie, and they don’t have the dis-inhibition that the rest of us have in telling the big whoppers,” he added.
“When people make moral decisions, they are relying on the prefrontal cortex. When people ask normal people to make moral decisions, we see activation in the front of the brain,” he explained. “If these liars have a 14 percent reduction in gray matter, that means that they are less likely to care about moral issues or are less likely to be able to process moral issues. Having more gray matter would keep a check on these activities.”
Sobhan Allah! (May God Be Praised!), what a creation (human prefrontal cortex) God has created and therefore what a powerful scientific revelation He has revealed in the verses 96:15-16.
One can now realize that the fact that lying is haram (or bad) in Islam should not solely be understood as due to moral means. At a beginning, it should noted that if one continues to lie one will get addicted to lie and with the time and aging one will unfortunately reach the mental disease state of lying; hence becoming a pathological liar. This is the main reason that God asks us to avoid such bad behaviors since due to medical means pathological liars have a 14 percent reduction in gray matter; meaning that they are less likely to care about moral issues or are less likely to be able to process moral issues, as said by Dr. Raine.
One of the works of Damasio (1984) has shown that damage to the prefrontal cortices, specifically the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, causes impairment in decision-making, goal-oriented thinking and social behaviour. Damage to the prefrontal cortex changes personality and makes us unlike who we are. (4)
This has been confirmed later by other researchers. According to a 1994-study made in University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City, people who have a damaged prefrontal cortex develop a defect in real-life decision-making. (5)
Scientists have only discovered these functions of the prefrontal area in the last sixty years, as we have seen and even according to the famous world leading scientist Professor Keith L. Moore. (6)
Sources:
(1) Essentials of Anatomy & Physiology, Seeley and others, p. 211. Also see The Human Nervous System, Noback and others, pp. 410-411.
(2) Essentials of Anatomy & Physiology, Seeley and others, p. 211.
(3) http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20050904005107data_trunc_sys.shtml
(4) Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ Error, New York: Grosset/Putnam.
(5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8039375
(6) Al-E’jaz al-Elmy fee al-Naseyah (The Scientific Miracles in the Front of the Head), Moore and others, p. 41.
Filed under: 2.3.1. The Prefrontal Cortex (Forelock)
