“Heart Brain” From the Perspective of the Holy Qur’an (the Intellectual Function of the Pine-Shaped Heart)

The word “heart” has specific definitions in various sciences. In the recent decade, the field of “neurocardiology” in medicine has discovered the connection between the brain and the pine-shaped heart. Research indicates that in addition to the “pumping function”, the heart has an “intellectual function”, or a “brain” that receives information, learns, and makes decision separately from the “encephalon”, which is called the “heart brain”. Verse 46 of Sūrah al-Hajj, “they may have hearts by which they may apply reason … hearts that are in the breasts”, is the most significant verse that explicitly states the “intellectual function of the pine-shaped heart”. In the interpretation of the “function of the pine-shaped heart” in the above verse, there are two views: the intellectual function, according to which most of the ancients considered the heart to be the place of reason, and the attribution of reason to the heart to be “real”, and the pumping function, whereby most contemporaries, relying on the 18th and 19th century medical science, have considered the attribution of reason to the heart to be “permissible” and have esoterically interpreted the phrase “that are in the breasts”. In this research, using the descriptive-analytical method, the first view is strengthened with confirmations from verses and evidence from different sciences such as philosophy, mysticism, ethics and especially new medical achievements. In conclusion, although the employment of modern knowledge in the interpretation of the Qur’an is admirable, due to the uncertainty of the experimental sciences, the interpreter must be circumspect when employing them and, as far as possible, adhere to the originality of appearance, which every now and then results in the attainment of a new theory.