Whatever the Final Apostle of God, Muhammad (peace be on him), said in the capacity of Apostle is recorded as Traditions (Ahadith). Whenever there was no Divine inspiration or revelation from God, he used to consult his Companions, and refrained from imposing his personal opinion upon the people. Thus, he taught the people the value of the freedom of expression and mutual consultation. While the language of the Quran is the word of God revealed to the Prophet through the medium of the angel Gabriel (Jibreel), the Traditions are the inspiration from God as transmitted in the language of the Prophet himself. The scholars of Arabic can easily differentiate between the two modes of expression. This is a miracle in itself and a proof of the Divine origin of the Quran.

In one of such Traditions narrated by Aisha, wife of the Prophet, in Sahih Muslim, the number of joints in the human body is given as 360. This Hadith enjoins that it is incumbent upon everyone to show gratitude to God for everyone of the joints, because without joints we cannot move at all and cannot do anything.

Aisha narrated that the Prophet said: “Everyone of the children of Adam has been created with 360 joints. So whoever performs three hundred and sixty good deeds by the end of the day in thanksgiving, by remembering God, praising Him, glorifying Him or seeking His pardon, removing stones, thorns or obstructions from paths and thoroughfare, bidding good deeds and forbidding bad doings protects and distances himself from the fire of Hell.”

Now one wonders how can an unlettered person know the number of joints in the human body when there were no medical colleges in the whole of Arabia and no physician in the ancient world, and even for many centuries afterwards no one enumerated them in detail. This proves that Traditions are based on a direct inspiration to the Holy Prophet from God for the guidance of mankind.

The human body is divided into the following parts:

1. the head and face

2. the neck

3. the trunk consisting of the chest and the abdomen

4. a pair of upper limbs

5. a pair of lower limbs.

The bones in the head, face, neck and trunk constitute axial skeleton and are 80 in number in the adult. There are 32 bones in each adult lower limb, and 31 in each adult upper limb. Thus there are a total of 206 bones excluding the inconstant number of the small sesamoid bones. In the child there are 33 separate vertebrae in the backbone, but in the adult vertebrate column we find only 26 separate bones as 5 vertebrae of sacrum and 4 vertebrae of coccyx are fused together.

Now in the books of anatomy under the chapter of arthrology, a joint is described as: “A joint expresses the relations of two or more bones to one another at their region of contact. Some bones articulate at movable joints, others at only slightly movable joints.”

The 206 bones in the body are joined by three main types of joints: (1) The Fibrous Joint, (2) the Cartilagious Joint, and (3) the Synovial Joints. The fibrous joints are of two types and include sutures and syndesmoses. The cartilagious joints are of two kinds. One is Synchondrosis, and the other is Symphysis. The intervertebral discs are examples of symphyses. The synovial joints are of six types: (1) the Plain Joint (2) the Hinge Joint, (3) the Pivot Joint, (4) a Condyloid Articulation, (5) the Saddle Joints, and (6) the ball and Socket Joint.          

After giving complete details of all these joints the writer sums up the article with these words: 

Therefore, the number of joints in the human body is 360. This is an average figure with minor individual variation according to age, etc. Detailed morphological knowledge of the human body was only perfected during the last two hundred years or so. Therefore, the giving of an exact average count of the joints of the human body 1,400 years ago by an unlettered person can only mean one thing: that this knowledge was transmitted to him by God, the Creator of the human body. In other words, the authentic sayings (Ahadith) of the Holy Apostle, indeed, are divinely inspired. Another significant feature of Traditions of the Prophet highlighted by this marvellous Hadith is the meticulous care, profound faith, and complete honesty of Muslim scholars of the science of Hadith throughout the fourteen centuries which have elapsed ever since the time of the Prophet e. □