ANIMALS AND BIRDS LIVE IN COMMUNITIES
“There is not an animal (That lives) on the earth, Nor a being that
flies On its wings, but (forms Part of) communities like you.”
[Al-Qur’an 6:38]
Research has shown that animals and birds live in communities, i.e. they
organize, and live and work together.
THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS
Regarding
the flight of birds the Qur’an says:
“Do they not look at the birds, held poised In the midst of (the air
and) the sky? Nothing Holds them up but (the power Of) Allah. Verily in
this are Signs for those who believe.”
[Al-Qur’an 16:79]
A similar message is repeated in the Qur’an in the verse:
“Do they not observe the birds above them, spreading their wings and
folding them in? None can uphold them Except (Allah) Most Gracious:
Truly it is He that watches over all things.”
[Al-Qur’an 67:19]
Prof. Hamburger in his book ‘Power and Fragility’ gives the example of
‘mutton-bird’ that lives in the Pacific with its journey of over 15,000
miles in the shape of figure ‘8’. It makes this journey over a period of
6 months and comes back to its departure point with a maximum delay of
one week. The highly complicated instructions for such a journey have to
be contained in the birds’ nervous cells. They are definitely
programmed. Should we not reflect on the identity of this ‘Programmer’?
THE BEE
“And thy Lord taught the Bee To build its cells in hills, On trees, and
in (men’s) habitations; Then to eat of all The produce (of the earth),
And find with skill the spacious Paths of its Lord.” [Al-Qur’an
16:68-69]
Von-Frisch received the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his research on the
behavior and communication of the bees. The bee, after discovering any
new garden or flower, goes back and tells its fellow bees the exact
direction and map to get there, which is known as ‘bee dance’. The
meanings of this insect’s movements that are intended to transmit
information between worker bees have been discovered scientifically
using photography and other methods. The Qur’an mentions in the above
verse how the bee finds with skill the spacious paths of its Lord.
The worker bee or the soldier bee is a female bee. In Surah Al-Nahl
chapter no. 16, verses 68 and 69 the gender used for the bee is the
female gender (fa’slukî and kulî), indicating that
the bee that leaves its home for gathering food is a female bee. In
other words the soldier or worker bee is a female bee.
In fact, in Shakespeare’s play, “Henry the Fourth”, some of the
characters speak about bees and mention that the bees are soldiers and
that they have a king. That is what people thought in Shakespearean
times. They thought that the worker bees are male bees and they go home
and are answerable to a king bee. This, however, is not true. The worker
bees are females and they do not report to a king bee but to a queen
bee. But it took modern investigations in the last 300 years to discover
this.
SPIDER’S WEB / HOME IS FRAGILE
The Qur’an mentions in Soorah Al-‘Ankabût,
“The parable of those who Take protectors other than Allah Is that of
the Spider, Who builds (to itself) A house; but truly the flimsiest of
houses Is the Spider’s house – If they but knew.”
[Al-Qur’an 29:41]
Besides giving the physical description of the spider’s web as being
very flimsy, delicate and weak, the Qur’an also stresses on the
flimsiness of the relationship in the spider’s house, where the female
spider many a times kills its mate, the male spider.
LIFESTYLE AND COMMUNICATION OF ANTS
Consider the following Qur’anic verse:
“And before Solomon were marshaled His hosts – of Jinn and men and birds
and they were all Kept in order and ranks. “At length, when they came to
a (lowly) valley of ants, one of the ants said: ‘O ye ants, get into
Your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (Under foot)
without knowing it.’”
[Al- Qur’an 27:17-18]
In the past, some people would have probably mocked at the Qur’an,
taking it to be a fairy tale book in which ants talk to each other and
communicate sophisticated messages. In recent times, research has shown
us several facts about the lifestyle of ants, which were not known
earlier to humankind.
Research has shown that the animals or insects whose lifestyle is
closest in resemblance to the lifestyle of human beings are the ants.
This can be seen from the following findings regarding ants:
(a)
The ants bury their dead in a manner similar to the humans.
(b)
They have a sophisticated system of division of labor, whereby they have
managers, supervisors, foremen, workers, etc.
(c)
Once in a while they meet among themselves to have a ‘chat’.
(d)
They have an advanced method of communication among themselves.
(e)
They hold regular markets wherein they exchange goods.
(f)
They store grains for long periods in winter and if the grain begins to
bud, they cut the roots, as if they understand that if they leave it to
grow, it will rot. If the grains stored by them get wet due to rains,
they take these grains out into the sunlight to dry, and once these are
dry, they take them back inside as though they know that humidity will
cause development of root systems and thereafter rotting of the grain.