The Skin - Sensation of Pain

Shaykh Zindani said, “People used to believe that all the parts of the human body feel pain regardless of where a person is struck, until the advancement of anatomy revealed the truth that not all parts of the body feel pain and that it is only the skin that is the source of pain. For example, if you bring a needle and insert it into the body of a person, the pain stops as soon as it passes through the skin into the flesh. Scientists discovered with the help of a microscope that nerves are centered in the skin and that sensory nerves are of different kinds. Some of them feel touch, some feel pressure, some feel heat and some feel coldness. They realised that the nerves that give the sensation of heat and coldness are only found in the skin.”

“Indeed, those who disbelieve in Our verses - We will drive them into a fire. Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment...” Qur’ān 4:56

God tells us that He would exchange the disbeliever’s roasted skins for other skins in order to exacerbate the pain they shall suffer in the fire of Hell. He said, “every time their skins are roasted through”, i.e., totally burned with all nerves of sensation and pain. He associated between the sensation of pain and the skin when roasted and burned totally, thus losing its structure and function.  

When sensation of pain is lost, a new fully composed and functional skin is replaced, where the nerve ending responsible for the painful sensation of heat and burn perform and function to make the disbeliever taste the punishment of being burned with fire over and over again.

Taking skin burns as a distinct cause for the skin sensation of pain, burns can be divided into 3 types:

Burns of first degree (sun burns): these affect the epidermis causing swelling and moderate pain.  The phenomena of redness, swelling and pain usually disappear within two to three days.

Burns of second degree: epidermis and dermis are injured.  In such a case, a detachment occurs between epidermis and dermis, causing the collection of secretions between these two layers. The injured person suffers from severe pain, and excessive increase of pain sensation, due to irritation of exposed nerve ending particularly after the outburst of blisters.  The skin starts to heal within 14 days as a result of the process of renovation and inversion under the skin.

Burns of third degree: the whole skin thickness is burned and perhaps the injury may reach the muscles or the bone.   The skin loses elasticity and becomes rough and dry.  In this case, the injured person does not feel much pain, as nerve endings have been damaged almost completely due to burning. 

For third degree burns, the nerves in the skin are completely destroyed and there will be no longer the feeling of any pain.